Medieval fantasy from debut author Anneke Schwob is ‘dark, beautiful, glorious and gory’

Martha Perotto-Wills at David Higham sold World English rights for two books to Editorial Director Jenni Hill at Orbit UK. Editorial Assistant Cassie DeNicola and Executive Editor John Morgan have acquired for Grand Central Publishing in the USA.

The Bog Saints will publish in early 2028. The novel follows Aulidd, a foundling raised by nuns knowing she will one day be sacrificed to a bog goddess, saving the land from an ancient evil. The complication: she discovers she cannot die. The Bog Saints combines the epic fantasy adventure of The Devils with the dark ages worldbuilding of fantasy-adjacent horror such as Between Two Fires and The Starving Saints. It also features tangled, messy queer relationships that will delight any Tamsyn Muir or Tasha Suri fan.

Schwob is a graduate of Clarion Writers Workshop. Their short fiction has been published in Strange Horizons, Baffling and elsewhere. Orbit and GCP have also bought a second speculative novel from Schwob, set in the world of
The Bog Saints.

Anneke says: ‘The Bog Saints grew out of my long obsession with bog bodies, folk horror and other things that
emerge, nearly unrecognizable, from the muck of history. Martha immediately understood the vision, and now I’m
so thrilled to have Jenni, Cassie and John championing The Bog Saints as well. I can’t wait for readers to visit the
Weerdinge and meet the assorted bad personalities and deranged true believers who live there.’

Martha says: ‘I pestered Anneke for their novel for months after reading their short fiction, and when they sent it to
me I knew from the effortlessly voicey first page I had something special on my hands. The Bog Saints is weird, witty,
sexy, smart, allusive, impeccable on the line level, and there’s a giant evil snake in it – what’s not to love?’

Jenni says: ‘Schwob’s novel might take inspiration from the dark ages but their prose shines as brightly as the
illuminations on any medieval manuscript. The story is dark, beautiful, glorious and gory, and the cast is a delightful
mix of cultist nuns, Machiavellian academics, necromancers and bog goddesses. Schwob’s debut is a triumph!’

Cassie says: ‘Anneke has written a richly immersive fantasy debut with masterful prose, a clever wit, brutally realistic
characters, and a sapphic romance that deeply understands the queer themes of longing and devotion. Books like
this—and authors like them—are the reason I got into publishing.’