Australian Story: July 1

Tonight Australian Story profiles Hannah Kent, a young university student in Adelaide now on the cusp of having an international bestseller after her debut novel set in Iceland has attracted frenzied publishing auctions across Australia, the UK, the US and Canada with 16 translations secured.

It details her ten-year odyssey exploring the life of the last woman beheaded in Iceland – Agnes Magnusdottir – executed for her part in a grizzly double murder.

Hannah Kent’s Flinders University PhD thesis on Agnes Magnusdottir has led to a completely unexpected outcome for the 28-year-old from the Adelaide Hills. Her thesis created a frenzied bidding war and has turned into a global publishing phenomenon netting Hannah a reported seven figure sum for a two-book deal. Since its release in May this year Burial Rites has reached the No.1 on the independent booksellers best seller list in Australia and has now been sold to twenty territories around the world including the U.S., the U.K. and of course Iceland.

Hannah has just returned from the Annual Book Expo America in New York City where buzz surrounding her book – to be released in the U.S. in September – has already commenced.

Australian Story takes viewers exclusively behind the scenes of Hannah’s incredible journey to write Burial Rites – a journey that started in 2003 when she was an exchange student in Iceland – and that has taken her to places that at times defy belief and explanation including an unexpected life-changing encounter in remotest Iceland, “hours away from civilisation.”

The edition features interviews in Australia with Hannah Kent, her family and her partner; in New York with US publisher Judy Clain (from Little, Brown and Company) and Iceland.

Monday, July 1 at 8pm on ABC1