‘Confrontations’ by Simone Atangana Bekono sold to Serpent’s Tail (UK) and Bloomsbury (USA)

Lisette Verhagen, on behalf of Peters Fraser + Dunlop sold UK rights of Confrontations by Simone Atangana Bekono to Serpent’s Tail and US rights to Bloomsbury.

Salomé Atabong, daughter of a Cameroonian father and a Dutch mother, arrives at a juvenile detention centre to start a six-month sentence for an as-yet-unspecified violent crime.

Her thoughts, memories, interactions with fellow detainees and reluctant therapy sessions gradually reveal the confusion, anger and sorrow that swirl within her, fed not just by the casual and sometimes aggressive racism of her provincial hometown, but also by the tug of contending family influences.

Simone Atangana Bekono (b. 1991) first came to prominence as a poet. Her 2017 collection How the First Sparks Became Visible was widely acclaimed and won the Poetry Debut Prize Aan Zee. It has been published in English and rights have been sold in various territories. Confrontations, her first novel, was shortlisted for the prestigious 2021 Libris Literature Prize. The book was shortlisted for four different literary awards: she won the Hebban First Novel Award 2021 and the prize for Best Book for Young Readers 2021.