A&U acquires new Morton novel
Allen & Unwin has acquired ANZ rights to Kate Morton’s new novel Homecoming.
Described by the publisher as ‘an epic novel that spans generations’, Homecoming explores the power of motherhood, the corrosive effects of secrets and the healing nature of truth. On Christmas Eve in 1959, a local delivery man makes a terrible discovery beside a creek in the grounds of a grand mansion. When a police investigation ensues, a small South Australian town becomes embroiled in a shocking and perplexing murder case.
A&U publisher Annette Barlow calls Homecoming Morton’s ‘best work yet’. ‘It’s a magnificent novel full of mysteries, long-hidden secrets and a search for belonging. I can’t wait to share this book.’
‘I started Homecoming in the middle of 2020; having left London to be near family in South Australia, and as many things known about the world seemed to become unknown overnight, I began to think a lot about home and belonging and family, and especially what it means to “come home”,’ said Morton. ‘This book has been a home of sorts for me over the past two years—a place to disappear into: my favourite experience, as both a reader and a writer—and now, at last, it is time to invite my readers in, too.’
‘Homecoming will feel familiar to my regular readers, because it’s filled with secrets and mysteries, the haunting of the present by the past, by mothers, daughters, stories, storytellers, and a big old house on a hill. But in this book, along with a London setting, I’ve also brought my readers somewhere new, and that is the Adelaide Hills, one of the most beautiful, haunting and glorious parts of Australia.’
Morton is the author of The Shifting Fog (published internationally as The House at Riverton), The Forgotten Garden, The Distant Hours, The Secret Keeper, The Lake House and The Clockmaker’s Daughter, all of which have appeared on bestseller lists in Australia and internationally.
Homecoming is set to be published in April 2023.
Image credit: Davin Patterson
Category: Local news Rights and acquisitions
