The author of Cat Person, the short story that took the internet by storm, has landed a seven-figure book deal with Scout Press, an imprint of Simon & Schuster. Kristen Roupenian’s debut story collection You Know You Want This is scheduled to be published in the spring of 2019. Scout Press did not reveal the financial details of the two-book deal, which also includes a novel, but sources told The Associated Press that bidding topped $1 million. The U.K. rights were obtained by publisher Jonathan Cape. Cat Person was released by The New Yorker earlier this month. It is a fictional story of a 20-year-old woman and a 34-year-old man. It follows their relationship that starts through texting and ends in disillusionment. It went viral and was widely debated. The Washington Post said it captured “the experience not of print-oriented, older intellectuals but of millennials” and that young people rarely see the actualities of modern dating “— meeting online, talking through text messages, moving to in-person encounters shadowed with the expectation of sex — taken so seriously.” Roupenian’s You Know You Want This will “explore the complex — and often dark and funny — connections between gender, sex and power, across genres.”
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