Devotion, page 36
To Kristie Hedley, thank you for so generously supporting the #authorsforfireys charitable auction in early 2020. (I hope you forgive me for using the Latin origin of your name.)
Thank you to Margot McGovern and Lisa Bennett for reassuring me that a Lutheran ghost was a good idea, and for all our writers’ coven nights. To my friends who continue to get in touch with me even when I don’t reply for weeks, and who somehow still forgive me for disappearing, thank you. Thank you to Gail and David for your support. Thank you to Pam, Alan, Briony and Owen for your unconditional love and for reminding me that I always get there eventually.
To my children (who were born during the writing of this book), I love you both so much. Anouk, thank you for every sweet interruption, every picture drawn on my research papers. Rory, thank you for your ready laugh, and for all the snuggles.
And finally, thank you to Heidi, my love. Thank you for the pram chats, the picnic lunches on the floor, wrangling children so I could have another hour to write. But most of all, thank you for your belief in me and this story. Devotion is for you.
About the Author
Hannah Kent’s first novel, Burial Rites, has been translated into over thirty languages and was shortlisted for the Women’s Prize for Fiction, the Guardian First Book Award and the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award. In Australia it won the ABIA Literary Fiction Book of the Year and the Indie Awards Debut Fiction Book of the Year, amongst others. Her second novel, The Good People, was also been translated into many languages and shortlisted for the Walter Scott Prize. Devotion is her third novel.
ALSO BY HANNAH KENT
Burial Rites
The Good People
First published 2021 in Picador by Pan Macmillan Australia Pty Ltd, Sydney
First published in the UK 2022 by Picador
This electronic edition published 2022 by Picador
The Smithson, 6 Briset Street, London EC1M 5NR
EU representative: Macmillan Publishers Ireland Ltd, 1st Floor,
The Liffey Trust Centre, 117–126 Sheriff Street Upper,
Dublin 1 D01 YC43
Associated companies throughout the world
www.panmacmillan.com
ISBN 978-1-5098-6390-7
Copyright © Hannah Kent 2021
Author photograph © Lauren Bamford
Wave illustration © Sam Scales
Design: Lucy Scholes, Picador Art Department
The right of Hannah Kent to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
Pan Macmillan acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of country throughout Australia and their connections to lands, waters and communities. We pay our respect to Elders past and present and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples today. We honour more than sixty thousand years of storytelling, art and culture.
Pan Macmillan does not have any control over, or any responsibility for, any author or third-party websites referred to in or on this book.
You may not copy, store, distribute, transmit, reproduce or otherwise make available this publication (or any part of it) in any form, or by any means (electronic, digital, optical, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise), without the prior written permission of the publisher. Any person who does any unauthorized act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.
A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
Visit www.picador.com to read more about all our books and to buy them. You will also find features, author interviews and news of any author events, and you can sign up for e-newsletters so that you’re always first to hear about our new releases.
Hannah Kent, Devotion
