New Winterson Novel to Harcourt

English novelist Jeanette Winterson (Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit; Sexing the Cherry) has long had a keen following here, and Harcourt executive editor Ann Patty is an admirer. So when she saw the chance to lure Winterson away from her previous publisher, Knopf, she struck and made a six-figure U.S. rights deal with Suzanne Gluck at William Morris to bring her over. The new book is called Lighthousekeeping, which Patty describes as a book with poetic and mythical overtones, about an orphan girl adopted by a blind lighthouse keeper who makes her the center of a web of strange stories. Plans are to publish next spring.