We are delighted to announce deals for Austin Taylor’s debut novel Notes on Infinity in the US and UK. Katie Greenstreet sold North American rights to Deb Futter at Celadon in a seven-figure deal, at auction. UK rights were sold to Lily Cooper at Penguin Michael Joseph in a six-figure deal, at auction. German rights were sold to Heyne Verlag at auction.
Notes on Infinity by 24-year-old Harvard graduate Austin Taylor is an ‘extraordinary’ love story set against the world of Silicon Valley start-up culture.
Notes on Infinity begins in a chemistry classroom in Harvard, sometime in the late 2010s. Zoe and Jack couldn’t be from more different backgrounds, but they are both young, clever, ambitious – and instantly and irrevocably drawn to each other. When together they make a heart-stopping scientific breakthrough, they find themselves catapulted to the world of start-ups, fame, and money beyond their wildest dreams. But with it comes a maelstrom of insatiable greed, jealousy and deceit, and soon it becomes clear that their dream – and their relationship – might come at a heartbreaking price.
Austin Taylor is a 2021 graduate of Harvard University, where she studied Chemistry and English. She grew up in central Maine, where she now lives and writes, and will return to Harvard in the autumn to begin her law degree.
Taylor said: “I could not be happier that I and Notes on Infinity have found our home at Penguin Michael Joseph, and at Celadon in the US. Notes on Infinity is a product of my fascination with the real people living inside the sweeping dramas that capture our collective attention and dominate our news cycles. Lily Cooper and Deb Futter are a dream team, and I cannot wait to work with them to bring this book – and hopefully many more – into the world.”
Cooper said: “I was blown away by Notes on Infinity. Both a dazzling tale of ambition and deceit set against the vertiginous backdrop of Silicon Valley start-up culture and a deeply moving love story that had tears streaming down my face by the final page. This is the kind of extraordinary debut that as an editor, you dream of landing in your inbox. Austin’s assured, emotive storytelling will appeal to fans of Gabrielle Zevin, Maggie Shipstead and Jennifer Egan, but this story is completely unique, and we couldn’t be more thrilled to be launching what promises to be a glittering career at Penguin Michael Joseph.”
Greenstreet said: “Notes on Infinity is singular in both its scope and its execution. It is a novel about ambition and expectation, about the promise and seduction of the Next Big Thing. It’s about the pressure placed on brilliant-but-unformed minds to move fast and break things, regardless of the cost. But most of all, this is a love story between a boy and a girl who meet in a college classroom and together dream up an idea that’s big enough to change the world, asking readers to recall their own first loves, first passions, first tragedies. I couldn’t be prouder to be working with Austin Taylor on this and all that is to come in her career.”
Congratulations, Austin!