Hachette acquires Lau’s ‘Gunk Baby’

18 June 2020  

Hachette Australia has acquired ANZ rights to the novel Gunk Baby by Jamie Marina Lau.

Hachette head of literary Robert Watkins said he is excited to be publishing the novel, which was signed in a joint acquisition with Lee Brackstone at Weidenfeld & Nicolson UK and is scheduled for release in Australia in the first half of 2021.

Set primarily in the Topic Heights Shopping Complex and its suburban periphery, Gunk Baby follows Leen, who has opened up a massage and ear-cleaning business just upstairs from new minimalist chain store the K.A.G.

Lau told Books+Publishing the novel explores ‘the anatomy of a suburban climate and the aesthetic, inner eco-systems we create to distract from the outer’.

‘I’m very excited to be working with the brilliant team Lee and Robert have curated,’ Lau said. ‘This book has travelled through what feels like so many internal “eras” of thought, and the evolving and unravelling nature of the writing process and the learning I’ve done through it is what I’ve come to cherish about working on it. To have such an intelligent and experienced team of people (including my amazing agent Barbara [Zitwer]) who are committed to nurturing more growth, more unravelling and more exploration for this book, means a lot to me—it’s completely invaluable.’

World rights to Gunk Baby were previously acquired by Brow Books. However, as previously reported, the publishing arm of the Lifted Brow, along with the magazine itself, is currently pausing operations. Evelyn Araluen’s Dropbear was also scheduled for publication by Brow Books and has similarly been acquired elsewhere, having been signed by UQP earlier this year.

Books+Publishing understands Brow Books will no longer be publishing its planned reissue of Maria Tumarkin’s Traumascapes.