Acquisition Announcement: THE SECRET LIVES OF IMMORTALS by Ash Huang
Orbit buys lush fantasy of sorcery and betrayal from debut author Ash Huang.
Hana El Niwairi at Cooke McDermid sold World English rights in two books to Editorial Director Jenni Hill at Orbit UK, and Editor Angelica Chong has acquired for the USA.
Orbit will publish The Secret Lives of Immortals in Spring 2027. The novel is the tale of He Ling, a woman from fourth century China who is tricked into immortality and must settle with the consequences of her long life, as well as the actions of the alluring man who betrayed her. With the epic scope of The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue and The Ministry of Time’s irreverent, unapologetically modern voice, The Secret Lives of Immortals is a genre-defying work of speculative fiction that will break your heart and put it back together again.
Orbit have also bought a second speculative novel from Ash, whose short fiction has previously been published by Nightmare, Lightspeed, Ecotone, Orion’s Belt, and elsewhere. In 2022, Huang won the Diverse Worlds Grant from the Speculative Literature Foundation, and is an alum of the ‘Roots. Wounds. Words.’ Retreat, Tin House Winter Workshop, and the Periplus Fellowship.
Ash says: “I’m absolutely thrilled to find a home here at Orbit with Jenni, Angelica, and the rest of the team. I’ve read and obsessed over many immortality stories over the years, from canonical vampire lore to cryogenically preserved bumblers like Futurama’s Frye. The Secret Lives of Immortals is my own homage to what it actually means to make the years count as they fly on by.”
Hana says: “I can’t wait for readers to experience the beautiful chaos that is Ling’s (mis)adventures through the centuries, and to meet the brilliant mind behind it all in Ash Huang! We couldn’t have asked for better partners than Jenni, Angelica, and the Orbit team for this journey.”
Jenni says: “This tale captivated us from the get-go, with a main character who makes you feel as though she is sharing her secrets with you and only you. He Ling sits you down with a stiff drink, enthrals you with her triumphs and heartbreak and keeps you hooked until her very last words.”
Angelica says: “The Secret Lives of Immortals has everything I love in a book: lush historical intrigue, female friendship, top-tier yearning, and at its heart, a clever, complex protagonist that I still think about long after I’ve turned the last page.”
About the book:
He Ling is a storyteller, conwoman and poet. She’s also immortal. She will take you from her home in the courts of Imperial China to the bloody gladiatorial pits of Rome, from druidic London to frontier America. You will meet the great loves and losses of her life, the greatest of which is Quintus, the man who tricked her into this eternal life. He will not let go of her easily, and neither is she sure that she wants him to.
An exquisite story of love and treachery, The Secret Lives of Immortals is a lush fantasy tale of sorcery and power from a startlingly accomplished debut author, Ash Huang.
About the author: Ash Huang’s speculative fiction ‘examines themes such as inherited and intergenerational stories, nostalgia and misremembering, our complicated relationship with social media and technology, her particular slice of Chinese America, and diasporic co-creation’. She has also written essays on motherhood, equity in tech and design, as well as creativity and maintaining a creative practice. She co-hosts the podcast Thanks but Not for Me with K.M. Veohongs, about writing and publishing. Ash is represented by Hana El Niwairi of CookeMcDermid. Keep in touch with Ash via her monthly-ish newsletter and pep talks, That’s a Lot of Pep Talks.