British literary agency David Godwin Associates Ltd. has sold Tiger Hills, a novel by Sarita Mandanna, to Penguin India for the largest advance the house has ever paid for a debut. Sophie Hoult of DGA did not give an exact amount but said the deal was for seven figures.

Hoult called Tiger Hills “a sweeping popular novel set in India between 1878 and the second World War” and classified it as “an Indian Thorn Birds crossed with Gone with the Wind.” Mandanna is a banker in New York and will attend the London Book Fair with DGA next week.