Vladimir Nabokov’s 1955 novel Lolita is, arguably, one of the most contentious and heavily analyzed classics in the international literary canon. But it wasn’t until recently that the real-life incidents behind the disturbingly pedophilic story came to light.

Several years ago, Sarah Weinman, an editor at industry news site Publishers Marketplace, stumbled across the true story of Sally Horner, an 11-year-old girl who was abducted in 1948. Weinman became fascinated with the case’s relation to the Nabokov classic. She examined how Nabokov’s writing was knowingly informed by Horner’s story, which resulted in the article “The Real Lolita,” published in the online magazine Hazlitt. Weinman’s story connected with readers – it was viewed more than 500,000 times – including Knopf Canada publisher Anne Collins, who acquired North American rights to Weinman’s proposal for a book-length examination of the Horner case, and offered Weinman a deal for a second as-yet-to-be-determined non-fiction title.

“You read the Hazlitt story and wondered how much more there could be,” says Collins. “When the article was published, more pieces of the puzzle came out, and [Weinman] soon realized from the response that there were other avenues she could go down, that there was more to this than even a follow-up article.”

Among the Wholesome Children, due in fall 2018, was sold at auction to Ecco in the U.S. by David Patterson at the Stuart Krichevsky Literary Agency and to Lolita’s first U.K. publisher, Weidenfeld & Nicolson, by Jane Finigan at Lutyens & Rubenstein on behalf of Patterson, for a U.K./Australia–New Zealand edition. Collins says the book has the sort of potential of Truman Capote’s In Cold Blood, which can be attributed in part to Weinman’s personal dedication to Horner’s story.

“I knew Sally Horner and her stranger-than-fiction fate was more than a vessel for an iconic literary novel, and there had to be a reason so much of what happened to her ended up as the spine of the second half of Lolita,” Weinman says. “I never felt done with Sally. … As much as I felt the Hazlitt piece did her justice, I know the book will do so in an even more comprehensive and definitive manner.”