VUP author’s debut novel to be published in the UK

Victoria University Press author David Coventry’s debut novel—The Invisible Mile—is to be published by United Kingdom-based publisher, Picador.

Picador publisher Paul Baggaley has won the United Kingdom and Commonwealth rights to publish the book at an auction.

Mr Baggaley says he was bewitched by The Invisible Mile.

“It is a remarkable book, combining fictional sports writing of the highest order with a wartime mystery told in hallucinatory poetic prose.”

Picador will publish The Invisible Mile in June 2016.

The Invisible Mile

Based on a true story The Invisible Mile is a poignant account of five Australian and New Zealand cyclists who, in 1928, formed the first English-speaking team to ride in the Tour de France. They were gallant, under-resourced and badly outnumbered but were taken deep to the heart by the French nation. The novel describes in a wonderful poetic and visceral voice what it was like to ride in this race (the chaos, danger and rivalries), the extraordinary lengths to which the riders pushed themselves, suffering horrific injuries, riding through the night in pitch dark, and the ways they staved off the pain, through camaraderie, sexual conquest, drink and drugs (cocaine for energy, opium for pain).

Added to the team is the fictional narrator who is cycling towards his demons in a northern France still scarred by World War One. His brother was a fighter pilot damaged by his experiences in France, his sister has died, and this self-imposed test of endurance is slowly and painfully bringing him to his final, invisible mile where memory eventually comes to collide with the past.

David Coventry received his Master of Arts in 2010 from Victoria University of Wellington’s International Institute of Modern Letters. It was published in New Zealand by VUP in mid-June this year. Reviews called the book “brilliant”, “a tour de force”, an “important and impressive debut” and “a dream to read”.

The Invisible Mile debuted at number two on the New Zealand bestseller list and remained in the top ten for three straight months afterwards.