New book from Hannah Kent coming 26 October 2021
After taking readers to Iceland in BURIAL RITES, and Ireland in THE GOOD PEOPLE, Picador Australia is proud to announce Hannah Kent’s much-anticipated third novel, her first novel featuring her home country, Australia.
In early-nineteenth century Prussia, Hanne and her Lutheran family escape religious persecution by securing passage to the new colony of South Australia. Sharing the diabolical conditions of shipboard life is Hanne’s friend, Thea. By journey’s end, a bond has been forged that is so strong, nothing can break it. A shared existence in a new land is impossible – God, society and the natural order say so – but within the impossible, there is devotion.
From Cate Paterson, Publishing Director Pan Macmillan Australia
Hannah has delivered a magnificent novel. It is a feat of imagination that defies classification. DEVOTION pushes boundaries: it depicts fascinating history, reveals a tender love story, immerses the reader in a supernatural world of earthly connectivity. Hanne and Thea’s union is a beautiful gift.
From Hannah Kent
DEVOTION began as a desire to return to the light, after two previous novels which considered the dark. A curiosity about my German ancestors’ immigration to South Australia in the mid-nineteenth century met with a deeper creative impulse to represent and celebrate that which has so often been rendered invisible throughout history.
Hannah Kent’s first novel, the international bestseller, BURIAL RITES (2013), was translated into over 30 languages and won the ABIA Literary Fiction Book of the Year, the Indie Awards Debut Fiction Book of the Year, the ABA Nielsen Bookdata Booksellers Choice Award, the Victorian Premier’s People’s Choice Award and the FAW Christina Stead Award. It is currently being adapted for film by Sony TriStar. Hannah’s second novel, THE GOOD PEOPLE (2016) was also translated into many languages and is currently being adapted for film by Aquarius Productions.
DEVOTION by Hannah Kent, Publishing November 2021, Picador Australia