Picador to publish Judy Blume's new novel for adults
Lots of us here at Picador grew up reading Judy Blume's novels – Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret, Tiger Eyes, Forever and many more besides– and are indebted to her for making sense of our teenage years. We couldn't be more excited to be publishing In the Unlikely Event, her first novel for adults for sixteen years.
Lots of us here at Picador grew up reading Judy Blume's novels – Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret, Tiger Eyes, Forever and many more besides – and are indebted to her for making sense of our teenage years. We couldn't be more excited to be publishing In the Unlikely Event, her first novel for adults for sixteen years.
In Blume’s own words, In The Unlikely Event ‘is based on a series of tragedies in the town I lived in when I was growing up, and the terrible time it was for the adults and the children, although the adults never talked to the children about it.’
When three planes crashed in Elizabeth, New Jersey within the space of three months in the early 1950s, Newark airport was closed for a year. Each one was devastating not only for those on board, but also for the close-knit community of people whose homes and lives were irrevocably affected. In Elizabeth, the plane crashes open new wounds and mysteries – they bring some families together and tear others apart. But somehow, life continues – and amid grief and loss, hope and love survive.
Francesca Main, the book's UK editor, said: ‘In the Unlikely Event is a beautifully drawn, deeply moving, unforgettable novel from a master storyteller. It has a big canvas, yet never feels any less than intimate and immediate. As one of the millions whose teenage years were immeasurably enriched by reading Judy Blume, it is an indescribable honour to be publishing this book.’
In the Unlikely Event will be published in summer 2015 – watch this space!
In The Unlikely Event
by Judy Blume
In 1987, Miri Ammerman returns to her hometown of Elizabeth, New Jersey, to attend a commemoration of the worst year of her life.
Thirty-five years earlier, when Miri was fifteen and in love for the first time, three planes fell from the sky within three months, leaving a community reeling. Against this backdrop of actual events in the early 1950s, when airline travel was new and exciting and everyone dreamed of going somewhere, Judy Blume weaves a haunting story of three generations of families, friends, and strangers, whose lives are forever changed in the aftermath.
The plane crashes bring some people closer together and tear others apart; they create myths and unlock secrets. As Miri experiences the ordinary joys and pains of growing up in extraordinary circumstances, a young journalist makes his name reporting tragedy. And through it all, one generation reminds another that life goes on.