Nine Pints is now on sale in the United States. For complicated publishing industry reasons, it won't officially be published until next week, but you can buy it (and please do!). There are links on the Nine Pints page. The UK edition will be published on Thursday. I've now received copies of both editions and they are both stunning in different ways. Granta's cover is illustrated and very clever (did you see the faces?). Metropolitan's is glossy and classy, and I love how the tubes of the blood bags snake around onto the back cover.
Reviews have been appearing and most are good and two are fabulous: Sarah Ditum's in the Guardian and Dwight Garner's in the New York Times. I didn't dare hope for either, and am almost weak with relief and delight at both. (All reviews are on the Nine Pints page on here.) As Dwight wrote in his review, I've had some testing times while writing this book, and perhaps that's why I've had even less confidence about it than I usually have about my books. It's only when I see other people enjoy it that I remember how I enjoyed writing it too. This is like the moment when the candy falls out of the piñata, or the pass-the-parcel arrives at the parcel. In other words, it's great.
And last week Granta put on a marvellous bloody book launch for me. My editor Ka turns out to have some skill at making extremely strong Bloody Marys, while Pru, my endlessly capable and delightful publicist, ordered red Baby Bels and Jammie Dodgers to go with the red wine and the tomato juice. Wonderful people came, and the book began to feel real, and it was just an excellent party. Thank you so much Granta for your generosity, and for the Jammie Dodgers.