I’m really excited that my fifth novel, The Memory of Animals will be published by Tin House in the US and Canada in June 2023. The novel has also changed title. It will be published by Penguin in the UK and Commonwealth (excluding Canada), also under the title, The Memory of Animals.
Here’s the Tin House Deal, announced yesterday in Publishers Weekly, with a little taster of what the book is about:
I’m absolutely delighted to let you know that my UK publisher Fig Tree, an imprint of Penguin will publish my fifth novel, Body of Water, in spring 2023.
The press release published in The Bookseller says:
Continue reading
As Patron of the Winchester branch of Read Easy (a UK charity which helps adults learn to read), I’m delighted to be talking at their coffee and cake morning on 9th June 2022. Rick Stein Restaurant are kindly providing the coffee (or tea) and cake and their restaurant for the morning.
I’ll be talking about Unsettled Ground and its theme of struggling to read and how that affects the main character, Jeanie. Read Easy will talk about the work they do, and one of their students will talk about how learning to read has changed his life. There will also be a book draw, where, for a cash donation you’ll have a chance to win one of several book prizes donated by Waterstones, P&G Wells, and Penguin Books.
The event starts at 9.30am and lasts until 11.15am at Rick Stein, 8 High Street, Winchester, SO23 9JX. Tickets cost £12 each including an Eventbrite fee, and are limited – so get yours soon! Click here to book yours.
Today, April 26 2022, the beautiful paperback of Unsettled Ground is published in the US by Tin House. I’m delighted with the cover, designed by Holly Ovenden, and of course that it includes the Costa Book Award Winner sticker, as well as mention of the novel’s shortlisting for the Women’s Prize for Fiction. I hope that Unsettled Ground will find a whole new readership in the US. If you read the US paperback, I’d love it if you took a picture of the book and posted it on whichever social media you use. Don’t forget to tag me or let me know so I can thank you.
To find out what Unsettled Ground is about, visit this page for a synopsis, reviews and interviews.
The paperback is available from all US bookstores, either in store or available to order. Or you can buy online. Click here to find a selection of places to buy the book from.
Happy reading!
I’m so delighted and amazed that Unsettled Ground has won the Costa Novel Award 2021. It means a huge amount that Jeanie’s and Julius’s story will be more widely read, and it’s simply a wonderful privilege for the book to be chosen from so many entered and of course the brilliant shortlist. More information about the awards can be found here.
Unsettled Ground is about fifty-one year old twins, Jeanie and Julius who still live with their mother, Dot in rural isolation and poverty in the English countryside. When Dot dies, these adult children have navigate the real world for the first time. The novel has lots of themes: what home is, how the countryside is not always what it seems, how we all need friends, homelessness, and family lies. It makes a great book club book, and if you’d like to choose it for your book club, you can request book club questions here, to help get the discussion started.
So, although Unsettled Ground was one of the six novels shortlisted for the Women’s Prize for Fiction, it didn’t win. The wonderful, Piranesi was announced the winner at the award ceremony last week. I can’t deny some disappointment, but I really enjoyed Susanna Clarke’s second novel (published after a long illness and sixteen years after her debut), and think it is a very worthy winner. And, it was amazing to be out in London, firstly reading from Unsettled Ground to an audience of 450 people (so great to be reading in front of ‘real’ people again), and on the following night attending the prize party. After the announcement I was finally able to relax and enjoy myself, and catch up with lots of old friends and meet lots of people who also love books. Thanks for having me, Women’s Prize!
The UK cover of Unsettled Ground has had a refresh! The colours have been made much brighter, so now you can see all the creepy-crawlies in more detail, as well as the rotting fruit. Also included is a new quote from The Times (the previous one was about Bitter Orange, and some readers found that confusing), and the Women’s Prize For Fiction Shortlisted ‘sticker’ appears permanently in the bottom right-hand corner. I love how the cover really glows now, which makes it very eye-catching. Do let me know what you think. At the moment this new cover will only appear on the ebook.
Unsettled Ground is published today, May 18 in the USA by Tin House, and in Canada by House of Anansi.
It’s already been getting great reviews:
“The close attachment to Jeanie’s and Julius’s limited points of view enrich the suspense as long-kept secrets are gradually revealed. But even the disclosures and resolutions can’t entirely domesticate “Unsettled Ground,” which carries its lonely, stirring music of loss to the end.” Wall Street Journal
“Fuller paints a devastatingly haunting picture of abject poverty, especially in her descriptions of the houses they dwell in, each of which becomes a character in its own right.” Booklist
“Fuller builds suspense over the twins’ fate and ends with a brilliant twist. This one is worth staying with.” Publishers Weekly
Buy Unsettled Ground. The novel is available to buy or order from all US (and Canadian) independent bookstores, chain stores, and online. If you pre-ordered it – thank you – and I’d love to see pictures of it on Twitter or Instagram!
Tonight I’ll be kicking off a 12 bookstore virtual tour with a Zoom event hosted by New York bookstore, McNally Jackson, where I’ll be interviewed by author, Lucy Tan. Signed books (with bookplates designed by me) can be purchased from the participating stores, at the same time as registering for a free ticket for the event of your choice.
And keep an eye on my Twitter and Instagram accounts for the chance for US readers to win a signed copy of Unsettled Ground together with a limited edition flexi disc single of one of the songs in Unsettled Ground, composed and sung by acoustic guitarist, Henry Ayling.
(Thanks to @suethebookie on Instagram for letting me use her wonderful picture of Unsettled Ground.)
I’m absolutely delighted and thrilled that Unsettled Ground has been shortlisted for the Women’s Prize for Fiction. The panel of five judges, chaired by Booker prize winner, Bernardine Evaristo whittled down the longlist of sixteen books to just six. You can find out more about the other shortlisted novels, and watch Bernardine Evaristo reading from Unsettled Ground, here. The winner will be announced on 7th July.
Unsettled Ground is available to buy in the UK from all independent book shops, Waterstones, and other online shops. If you’d like a chance to win the whole shortlist, Bloom and Wild, as well as Love Reading are running competitions to win all six novels.
The Women’s Prize has organised a 2021 Virtual Shortlist Festival over three days, where you can hear readings from all six novels, see author, Kate Mosse interview us all, and get the opportunity to put your own questions to the shortlisted authors.
I’m still doing a few more UK events for the publication of the book, and I have lots of online US events lined up. (Unsettled Ground will be published on May 18 in the US and Canada.) It would be lovely to see some of you at them. Click to visit my events page.
Unsettled Ground is published in the UK today, 25th March 2021. It’s had wonderful reviews from readers, book bloggers, and many of the national papers, including the FT and the TLS, with The Times calling it, ‘a beautiful and powerful tale’.
And I’m still pinching myself about it being longlisted for The Women’s Prize for Fiction.
If you’ve pre-ordered a copy, hopefully it will be arriving soon if it hasn’t already. If you’d like to buy Unsettled Ground you can do so online from Bookshop.org or from your local bookshop. I’ve got lots of online events arranged, and most of the bookshops that are hosting these are also offering a book included in the price of the ticket. See my events page for more details.
(Thank you to Olivia Partridge @ayoungwritersworld on Instagram, for this gorgeous picture.)