The zombie invasion of the literary world has stepped up a pace with cult zombie film director George A Romero signed up to write his debut novel, The Living Dead, which will reveal "the origin of the zombie realm".
The book will, according to its UK publisher Headline, see the founder of modern zombie culture tell "the full story behind the living dead: how they came to be [and] what they can and cannot do". It starts in San Diego, where a corpse sits up and begins to walk during an autopsy, while a reporter from Atlanta shows viewers "glimpses of
increasing chaos from around the globe". Headline is believed to have paid a $300,000 advance to Romero for the book and a sequel, although the publisher would not comment on the amount.
Publisher Vicki Mellor said that zombies were "one of the new buzz words in publishing". "I think that the world is ready to re-embrace the zombie culture - after the massive amount of vampire novels that have been published, it's time for a change of antagonist," she said. "We are very aware that there is going to be an explosion of zombie novels being published over the next year, but we absolutely believe that we have the definitive novel from the one author whom every fan of the genre will want to read."
Romero's classic film Night of the Living Dead was released in 1968. He has followed this with five sequels combining horror with social satire, most recently Survival of the Dead, which was screened at last month's Venice film festival.
"There is no one more qualified to write a zombie novel," said Mellor, who pointed to the success of the films Shaun of the Dead, I Am Legend and 28 Days Later, and the runaway bestselling book Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, as proof that the genre "has legs". "You just have to look on the internet and around the world at the enthusiasm with which Romero, and zombies, are greeted, to see that there's a huge amount of potential for these books," she said. The Living Dead will be published in July next year.