Italian rights in GHOST LIGHT, Joseph O'Connor's stunning new novel, have been sold to Luigi Brioschi at Guanda.  

Told through a narrative that moves between London in the 1950's and Edwardian Dublin, GHOST LIGHT is loosely based on real events in the lives of John Millington Synge, the greatest Irish playwright of the twentieth century and the younger Molly Allgood who was his fiancée at the time of his tragically early death. This ambitious novel is a love story, a tale of journeys, and a powerful meditation on the hope to be found in the everyday.

This deal with O'Connor's long standing Italian publisher is the first of many anticipated translation sales for the novel which Harvill Secker will publish in the UK in hardback next year. In addition to acquiring GHOST LIGHT, Guanda have also re-licensed three earlier O'Connor titles: INISHOWEN, THE SALESMEN and the IRISH MALE AT HOME AND ABROAD.  The Italian sales were handled for Blake Friedmann by Roberta Oliva of Natoli, Stefan & Oliva.

O'Connor's novels have been translated into 28 languages.