Bestselling author of "Will Grayson, Will Grayson (with David Levithan)," "An Abundance of Katherines," and "Looking for Alaska," John Green of Indianapolis has announced that his new book, "Turtles All the Way Down," will be released in a few months, on October 10th. He is one of the world's richest authors, with over 45 million books sold worldwide. He first shared the news with his 5.31 million followers on Twitter on Thursday and also announced it at VidCon that same day.
The book carries a personal connection
Green has also stated that he has been working on his upcoming novel for many years and he holds its meaning dear and close to his heart.
In a YouTube video, Green said that the story follows the life of a teenage girl with a mental illness as she investigates the whereabouts of a billionaire on the run. Although the novel is fiction, Green has commented that the book is very personal and contains many elements of his own fight against mental illness.
Turtles All the Way Down. October 10th 2017.
— John Green (@johngreen) June 22, 2017
The book publisher's thoughts
The publisher of the novel, Dutton Books, part of Penguin Random House, has also weighed in on the themes of the book, describing it as a journey of lifelong friendship, culminating in an unexpected reunion. They have also said that it resembles "Star Wars" fan fiction and have hinted that a certain species of reptiles originally from New Zealand called tuatara will serve some importance in the book.
John Green's struggle with mental illness
Known for his ability to document the lives of teenagers in an extremely relatable fashion, Green too has felt the negative side effects of mental illness. He has voiced his struggles in the past and is unashamed and unafraid to articulate his experience. His hiatus from book publication is partially the result of his mental illness, as he has explained his fear of not being able to adequately follow up his books' wild success thus far.
He suffers from both anxiety and obsessive compulsive disorder and has said that he sometimes finds book tours to be quite overwhelming.
Success despite challenges
The author has yet to allow his mental illness to get the best of him, as he has a long running list of bestsellers. In fact, two of his books, "The Fault In Our Stars" and "Paper Towns" were even made into movies, which also quickly became a huge success.
Due to previous sales, "Turtles All The Way Down" will have 1.5 million copies printed in its first run.
For those of you who simply can't wait three months to get your hands on Green's new novel, you can preorder it now from Penguin Random House.
