Costanza Casati’s Clytemnestra is the hottest book of 2023 so far—but the publisher isn’t exactly thrilled.
Casati’s novel, a feminist retelling of the story of Helen of Troy’s twin sister, had been scheduled for publication on March 7 by Sourcebooks Landmark. But apparently Hephaestus had other plans—all 35,000 copies of the book were destroyed when a truck carrying them caught fire, Cristina Arreola, a senior marketing manager for the publisher said via email.
“When I told my colleagues ‘I hope this book catches fire!’ I didn’t mean it literally,” Arreola quipped.
There were no injuries in the fire, which is still under investigation, and Casati said in a statement that she is “beyond grateful that no one was hurt, which is the most important thing.”
Sourcebooks Landmark is at work reprinting the book (though probably not with Margaret Atwood–style fireproof materials, sadly).
“The team at Sourcebooks has worked an absolute miracle and managed to reallocate materials to reprint these copies as quickly as possible,” Casati said.
The author also posted about the fire on Instagram, writing, “We all had a moment of stress (!!!) when we heard about this accident but thanks to my incredible team we’re back in the game and with so many surprises ahead.”
Clytemnestra is now scheduled for publication on May 2 (unless Agamemnon finds another way to exact his revenge).
Michael Schaub, a journalist and regular contributor to NPR, lives near Austin, Texas.
