Maybe the Horse Will Talk

Acclaimed Novel Maybe the Horse Will Talk by Elliot Perlman to be adapted for US Television

Penguin Random House Australia is proud to announce that Paramount Television Studios (US) has optioned internationally-acclaimed bestselling Australian author Elliot Perlman's novel, Maybe the Horse Will Talk, for adaptation into a television series, with Perlman to adapt and executive produce the show.

Penguin Random House Publisher, Nikki Christer, said, "We're delighted but not surprised that Maybe the Horse Will Talk is being adapted for television.  It's one of those rare novels that manages to be funny, sad, angry and illuminating all at the same time.  And the rapid-fire funny dialogue makes it perfect for television."

Paramount Television Studios President Nicole Clemens said, "We're so excited to bring this funny, tender and at times scathing thriller-like story to television through Elliot's unique voice.  Touching on friendship, marriage, toxic workplaces, corporate corruption and sexual harassment, Maybe the Horse Will Talk is timely and sure to resonate with people everywhere." 

The story concerns Stephen Maserov, a onetime teacher, married to fellow teacher Eleanor, who has retrained and is now a second-year lawyer working at mega-firm Freely Savage Carter Blanche. Despite toiling around the clock to make budget, he's in imminent danger of being downsized. And to make things worse, Eleanor, sick of single-parenting their two young children thanks to Stephen's relentless work schedule, has asked him to move out. 

To keep the job he hates, pay the mortgage and salvage his marriage, he will have to do something strikingly daring, something he never thought himself capable of. But if he's not careful, it might be the last job he ever has… 

Warm, dramatic, and at times laugh-out-loud funny, with the narrative pull of a thriller, Maybe the Horse Will Talk, is a love story, a reflection on contemporary marriage, and on friendship as well as an unflinching examination of sexual harassment in the workplace and an exposé of corporate corruption that taps directly into the pulse of our times. 

This is not the first of Perlman's work to be adapted for the screen. With director Robert Connolly, Perlman co-wrote the adaptation of his novel, Three Dollars, which won an AFI Award and an Australian Film Critics' Circle Award for best adapted screenplay in 2005 while his novel Seven Types of Ambiguity was made into a multi-award winning 6 part drama series for ABC Television in 2017.

Elliot Perlman is the author of Three Dollars, The Reasons I Won't Be Coming, Seven Types of Ambiguity, The Street Sweeper, Maybe the Horse Will Talk and, for children, The Adventures of Catvinkle with its sequel, Catvinkle and the Missing Tulips to be published by Puffin in October 2020.  He's been described by the Times Literary Supplement (UK) as 'Australia's outstanding social novelist'.

  Penguin Books Australia

Author: Elliot Perlman