Text acquires Hornung’s ‘The Minstrels’

Text Publishing has acquired world rights to The Minstrels by Eva Hornung, via Jenny Darling & Associates. 

The Minstrels follows the Thurston family, farming land overlooked by the Minstrels, the plunging gorge where young people go to ‘enact their dangerous rituals and desires’, said the publisher.

Quick and clever Gem is adored by her brother, Will, but not by her parents. As Gem grows into adulthood, this farm is where trauma severs her from her family, but it is also where she returns, ‘after her father and mother are gone, to make her peace with the land, with Will, and perhaps even with herself’.

Based in South Australia, Hornung has also published under the name Eve Sallis. She is the author of the Vogel Literary Award–winning Hiam (Allen & Unwin), and the Prime Minister’s Literary Award–winning Dog Boy (Text), as well as The Marsh Birds (Allen & Unwin) and, most recently, The Last Garden (Text).

Text senior editor Mandy Brett said, ‘It’s always been a privilege to publish Eva Hornung but The Minstrels is her tour de force: a big, beautiful and deliciously weird novel, both serious and playful, that is simply a pleasure to read.’

Text plans to release The Minstrels in March 2026. 

Photo credit: Noni Martin.

Category: Local news Rights and acquisitions