Wilson moves to Fairlight Books with her 'vital' third novel

Fairlight Books has netted Mother Sea, the "lyrical" third novel from Lorraine Wilson. 

Editor Laura Shanahan acquired world rights, including audio, from Robbie Guillory at Underline Literary Agency. The novel is set for publication in May 2023. 

Previously a conservation scientist, Wilson writes fiction influenced by folklore and the wilderness. Her debut This Is Our Undoing (Luna Press) was longlisted for the British Science Fiction Association’s Best Novel Award and her second novel, The Way The Light Bends (Luna Press), was published last year. 

The synopsis for Mother Sea reads: "In an island community facing extinction, can hope rise stronger than grief? Sisi de Mathilde lives on a remote island in the Indian Ocean. With the seas rising, the birth rate plummeting and her community under threat, she works as a scientist, reporting on local climate conditions to help protect her island home. But her life is thrown into turmoil when she finds herself newly widowed and unexpectedly pregnant. When a group of outsiders arrive and try to persuade her community to abandon the island, Sisi is caught between the sacred ‘old ways’ of her ancestors and the new possibilities offered by the outside world. As tensions rise and the islanders turn on one another, Sisi must fight to save her home, her people and her unborn child." 

Shanahan commented: "I’m so happy that Fairlight Books will be publishing Mother Sea. When I first read the manuscript I was blown away by Lorraine Wilson’s heady, lyrical writing, and struck by the novel’s remarkable protagonist, Sisi – a brilliant scientist who thinks with her heart as well as her head, and cares deeply about her home and community. Set in a part of the world where the effects of climate change are already acute, Mother Sea is a vital novel with a speculative premise that feels all too close to reality. It’s heart-wrenching and yet subtly hopeful."