Jessica Purdue, Senior Rights Manager at Orion, has sold US rights in SUMMERLAND by Finnish science fiction novelist resident in the USA, Hannu Rajaniemi, to Patrick Nielsen Hayden of Tor.

World rights in this and two further novels were acquired by Gollancz in 2013 for six figures. Hannu’s debut novel, THE QUANTUM THIEF, plus two further books were originally acquired pre-emptively by Simon Spanton of Gollancz for a high five-figure sum in pounds sterling, on the basis of one chapter, in 2008. Both Gollancz and Tor will publish in the summer of 2018. The agent was John Jarrold.

SUMMERLAND is an awe-inspiring account of the afterlife and what happens when it spills over into the world of the living. The new novel from the most exciting new voice in the genre since Neal Stephenson.

Loss is a thing of the past. Murder is obsolete. Death is just the beginning.

In 1938, death is no longer feared but exploited. Since the discovery of the afterlife, the British Empire has extended its reach into Summerland, a metropolis for the recently deceased.

Yet Britain isn’t the only contender for power in this life and the next. The Soviets have spies in Summerland, and the technology to build their own god.

When SIS agent Rachel White gets a lead on one of the Soviet moles, blowing the whistle puts her hard-earned career at risk. The spy has friends in high places, and she will have to go rogue to bring him in.

But how do you catch a man who’s already dead?