Manilla Press, an imprint of Bonnier Books UK, has acquired These Glass Bodies, an ‘absorbing, unsettling novel’ set against a Scottish coastal town facing catastrophic climate change from debut author and evolutionary biologist Rebecca Hooper.
Publisher Sophie Orme pre-empted World rights (excluding US & Canada) in a two-book deal from Laura Williams at Greene & Heaton. German language rights have been sold by Bonnier Books UK, at auction, to S. Fischer Verlage.
Hooper’s tender and exquisitely crafted tale of love, disconnected community and humanity’s fragile relationship with the natural world is inspired by her own experience – like her protagonist Anna, she studied ornithology and was struck by a question someone asked during her PhD. She’d been collecting hundreds of wild bird bodies from their nests and was asked, “but why didn’t you try to save them all?”
Rebecca Hooper said: “This novel is, in many ways, an exploration of that question; a way to try to make sense of how to get through, and maybe even improve the world a little bit, without taking on too much to bear.
“I am over the moon to be working with Manilla Press, whose ethos of publishing books that spark conversation is so central to why I write: to connect with readers and invite discussion.”
Publisher Sophie Orme said: “This is one of those rare novels I want to press into the hands of everyone I know. A stunning, unique debut, set on the coast in Scotland, it is at once a love story, a tale of disconnected people finding one another and an unsettling exploration of our fragile relationship with the natural world. It also features the most tender, beautiful rendering of neurodivergent characters I’ve come across. It captured my heart completely.”
Rebecca Hooper is an evolutionary biologist with a PhD in animal sociality and cognition. Born in Winchester, she has lived in England, Sweden, Canada and France, and is now based in the Orkney Islands with her partner and their dog. She writes a weekly newsletter exploring biology and climate action at Between Two Seas. These Glass Bodies is her debut novel.
These Glass Bodies will be published in hardback, audio and eBook in Spring 2027.
