Indies join forces to launch 'Butterfly Fish'
Published: 23 August 2015 | by Jacaranda Books
London-based publisher Jacaranda Books joined forces with local independent bookshop West End Lane Books recently to launch what is set to be one of the top debut novels of 2015: Butterfly Fish by Irenosen Okojie.
Based in West Hampstead, the publisher and book retailer hosted a wonderful launch party for the novel, which follows London-based photographer, Joy.
Joy is inspired by an ancient Nigerian brass artefact she inherits after her mother's sudden death.
She sets out to trace her family history, taking the reader on a journey from the 19th century Kingdom of Benin, through to 1950s Nigeria and 1970s London, and revealing deeply hidden family secrets along the way.
The launch was attended by key names in publishing, including Margaret Busby co-founder of Allison & Busby, award-winning novelist Yvvette Edwards, Joy Francis, founder of Words of Colour, and fellow Jacaranda author and WHSmith bestseller Frances Mensah Williams (From Pasta to Pigfoot), along with friends of Irenosen and Jacaranda Books.
Valerie Brandes, publisher at Jacaranda Books, told attendees that Irenosen Okojie represented precisely the 'exceptional raw-talent and overwhelming potential' that she was looking for when she founded the diversity-led publishing house in 2012.
She expressed her joy at publishing Butterfly Fish, which she described as a 'tour de force' and one of the best debut novels she had ever read.
Irenosen gave a heart-warming speech in which she thanked her many supporters, including her agent Elise Dilsworth, formerly commissioning editor at Virago Books, Alex Wheatle MBE who described her as 'one of the most original and innovative writers to emerge in many a year', and her mentor Donna Daley-Clarke, winner of the 2006 Commonwealth Prize.
A limited number of signed copies of Butterfly Fish are available from West End Lane Books. The novel has been selected for a WHSmith Travel promotion and was included in the Observer's essential summer reading list.
- Jacaranda Books