Exciting novel out about international development (9)
I believe the answer is:
evolution
'development' is the definition.
(I know that development can be written as evolution)
'exciting novel out about international' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite see how this works, but
'about' could be 'on' (as in a book 'on' a certain topic) and 'on' is located in the answer.
'international' could be 'i' (abbreviation eg in IMF) and 'i' is present in the answer.
This may be the basis of the clue (or it may be nonsense).
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for evolution that I've seen before include "Slow change" , "Development - progress" , "Darwin's theory" , "Gradual change" , "Gradual development" .)