BOOKTOPIA'S FAVOURITE BOOK OF 2021
Prussia, 1836
Hanne Nussbaum is a child of nature - she would rather run wild in the forest than conform to the limitations of womanhood. In her village of Kay, Hanne is friendless and considered an oddity . . . until she meets Thea.
Ocean, 1838
The Nussbaums are Old Lutherans, bound by God's law and at odds with their King's order for reform. Forced to flee religious persecution the families of Kay board a crowded, disease-riddled ship bound for the new colony of South Australia. In the face of brutal hardship, the beauty of whale song enters Hanne's heart, along with the miracle of her love for Thea. Theirs is a bond that nothing can break.
The whale passed. The music faded.
South Australia, 1838
A new start in an old land. God, society and nature itself decree Hanne and Thea cannot be together. But within the impossible . . . is devotion.
SHORTLISTED FOR THE INDIE BOOK AWARDS FICTION 2022
LONGLISTED FOR THE AUSTRALIAN BOOK DESIGN AWARDS 2022 BEST DESIGNED LITERARY FICTION COVER
LONGLISTED FOR THE ABIA LITERARY FICTION BOOK OF THE YEAR 2022
Praise for Devotion
'Devotion is utterly original. A glorious, heartbreaking love story of infinite beauty.' - Heather Rose
'Hannah Kent's latest novel is stunning - full of magic and adventure. I fell in love with language again reading it. So beautiful and so raw. Devotion is impossibly good.' - Evie Wyld
'Such a glorious love story. And the poetry of the landscape had, for me, a Whitmanesque sensibility. A mighty impassioned cry to love and the land.' - Sarah Winman
'Devotion is rare and exquisite, both beautiful and muscular in its portrayal of love found and denied. It's a story of love as a radical act, and a celebration of place and persistence. As we've come to expect from Kent, this is masterful storytelling with pull-no-punches stakes. It's taken root in my heart.' - Kiran Millwood Hargrave
'I absolutely love this book. Hannah Kent writes some of the most transcendently beautiful prose I've ever read.' - Magda Szubanski
'Devotion is a rich, often surprising novel, written with the sort of prosody poets like me are always seeking.' - The Conversation
BOOKTOPIA'S FAVOURITE BOOK OF 2021
Prussia, 1836
Hanne Nussbaum is a child of nature - she would rather run wild in the forest than conform to the limitations of womanhood. In her village of Kay, Hanne is friendless and considered an oddity . . . until she meets Thea.
Ocean, 1838
The Nussbaums are Old Lutherans, bound by God's law and at odds with their King's order for reform. Forced to flee religious persecution the families of Kay board a crowded, disease-riddled ship bound for the new colony of South Australia. In the face of brutal hardship, the beauty of whale song enters Hanne's heart, along with the miracle of her love for Thea. Theirs is a bond that nothing can break.
The whale passed. The music faded.
South Australia, 1838
A new start in an old land. God, society and nature itself decree Hanne and Thea cannot be together. But within the impossible . . . is devotion.
SHORTLISTED FOR THE INDIE BOOK AWARDS FICTION 2022
LONGLISTED FOR THE AUSTRALIAN BOOK DESIGN AWARDS 2022 BEST DESIGNED LITERARY FICTION COVER
LONGLISTED FOR THE ABIA LITERARY FICTION BOOK OF THE YEAR 2022
Praise for Devotion
'Devotion is utterly original. A glorious, heartbreaking love story of infinite beauty.' - Heather Rose
'Hannah Kent's latest novel is stunning - full of magic and adventure. I fell in love with language again reading it. So beautiful and so raw. Devotion is impossibly good.' - Evie Wyld
'Such a glorious love story. And the poetry of the landscape had, for me, a Whitmanesque sensibility. A mighty impassioned cry to love and the land.' - Sarah Winman
'Devotion is rare and exquisite, both beautiful and muscular in its portrayal of love found and denied. It's a story of love as a radical act, and a celebration of place and persistence. As we've come to expect from Kent, this is masterful storytelling with pull-no-punches stakes. It's taken root in my heart.' - Kiran Millwood Hargrave
'I absolutely love this book. Hannah Kent writes some of the most transcendently beautiful prose I've ever read.' - Magda Szubanski
'Devotion is a rich, often surprising novel, written with the sort of prosody poets like me are always seeking.' - The Conversation
Short-listed for Indie Book Awards Fiction 2022.
Long-listed for Australian Book Design Awards 2022.
Long-listed for ABIA Literary Fiction Book of the Year 2022.
In Devotion, Hannah Kent has delivered 'a gift' to her 'younger, queer, closeted-as-hell self'. After the darkness her previous two bestsellers inhabited - the real-life historical murder trials of Burial Rites and The Good People - her latest book turns towards the light with a love story set both in the Lutheran communities of both old-world Prussia, and the new colony of South Australian. Lyrical, raw, beautiful - it's classic Hannah Kent and we are so lucky to hear from her firsthand at this evening event.
8:00 PMHilary Mantel wrote: 'women writers...can't resist retrospectively empowering' women of the past. Do we agree ... and does it matter? Each writer powerfully brings the past into the present, from the minotaur myth in Kate Forsyth's latest, to Felicity McLean's reimagining of Ned Kelly (spoiler: Ned becomes a girl, and she's from the Coast!) and Hannah Kent's impeccably researched tales of real and imagined women from history.
11:30 AM