Many
manuscripts reach me but few grab my attention so completely as Mission by Paul
Forrester-O’Neill. This story, set in the United States, begins with a small
boy who overhears his mother tell his father a horrendous lie. The plot follows
the boy to adulthood as he tries to make amends to his father.
A boy and his father are separated by an
unforgivable lie. Twenty years later they meet, and the dying father tells John
of the men who cheated him and the town of Mission that spurned him. John plans
his revenge. What follows is a twist of
guile and brutality, mud and gold, as his father's enemies are played by the
young man with the crooked nose and the pocketful of hatpins.
Although
last year’s budget was tight, I knew on first reading that I had to take this
story to print. Sarah Haywood who wrote The Cactus (soon to be a movie with Reese Witherspoon) said, “Mission
is a book that will stay with me. A remarkable debut.”
Paul is a specialist skills tutor at a UK university. However,
he has been writing for more than forty years. He has an MA in Creative Writing
from Manchester Metropolitan University where Mission won the Michael Schmidt
Prize for the novel of the year. Mission is his first published novel.
All publishing is a risk,
especially with debut writers who have no footprint in the industry – how do
you help readers find an unknown author among the other 600,000 books published
each year? However, many publishing decisions are based on faith. Mission is a
terrifically absorbing read, and we have submitted it for the Costa, McKitterick,
Christopher Bland and Paul Torday prizes, In addition it already has
translation representation in Germany.
Curious about Mission – you can
read the early chapters right here.