A life inside books
When Sara O’Keeffe was just a week into her junior editing role at Orion Publishing, she unwrapped a package the size of a telephone directory – for those were the days before submissions were emailed. ‘My boss had told me to have a look, so I took it home and began reading it that night… then carried on reading until three o’clock the next morning. A few hours later I went into work, looking like I’d been dragged through a hedge, and nervously told my boss that I really thought she should take a look.’
The book was Shantaram, and Sara has never forgotten the moment. ‘We didn’t go on to win it, but it was like being in a Hollywood movie, the whole thing was electrifying. And for me, it confirmed that I was on the right path.’
Book buyer to junior agent
It was a path which had begun three years earlier when, fresh from her English and Philosophy degree, Sara made the move from Waterford, Ireland to London to begin a PGCE. ‘Three months in I had a total crisis of faith, realising that I didn’t want to be a teacher. I didn’t want to go back home, so I had a month to find a job and a place to live. I would have taken work in a sweet shop, but the first thing I was offered was
