Allen & Unwin UK bags Elliott’s ‘unflinching’ debut novel

Allen & Unwin UK has acquired And Then She Fell , “an unflinching and fiercely witty debut novel of Indigenous life, womanhood and mental health”, by Canadian author Alicia Elliott, “an important and urgent new voice in genre-bending fiction".

Senior editor Kate Ballard and Atlantic Books Australia publishing director Cate Paterson jointly acquired UK and Commonwealth rights from Hana El Niwairi at Cooke McDermid.

And Then She Fell will be published on 28th September 2023 by the Allen & Unwin UK imprint of Atlantic Books simultaneously with Atlantic Books Australia, Doubleday Canada and Dutton US.

Elliott said: “This novel is one that defied all my own expectations for what I thought I could write – and what I was allowed to write. There’s precious little literature about what it means to be a Haudenosaunee woman and mother, and even less about what it means when mental illness enters the equation to complicate things further.

“I didn’t know if there was a place for such an ambitious, different book, so the enthusiasm and support of both Cate Paterson from Atlantic Books Australia and Kate Ballard from Allen & Unwin has been a dream.”

Ballard said: “I think a contemporary retelling of a traditional Creation Story told through the prism of a young woman struggling with new motherhood, racism and misogyny has huge commercial appeal – and thanks to Alicia’s rare ability to lighten the heavyweight issues at play with wit and smarts, and a brilliantly realised central character, I found this an often devastating, sometimes surreal, sometimes funny but always believable insight into a too rarely fictionalised community and a really original page-turner of a story.”

Cate Paterson said: “My joyous brief at Atlantic Books Australia is to be afforded the time and space to only acquire books that I feel genuinely passionate about and think will resonate with a wide audience. And Then She Fell spoke to me directly. Alicia Elliot’s writing is penetrating, fiercely witty, illuminating, at once universal and deeply personal. I can’t think of a better novel to launch Atlantic Books Australia with.”