Monday, 22 September 2025 Books+Publishing @booksandpublishing
Hachette Australia has acquired The Shadows that Listen, a debut dystopian romantasy by Louisa Carmody, in a brokered between head of fiction Rebecca Saunders and C&W Agency, after a world all languages exclusive pre-empt to the UK’s Little, Brown Book Group and Little, Brown in the US.
The Shadows that Listen follows human warrior Amara whose boyfriend goes missing. She reluctantly accepts archangel Nathaniel’s help to find him.
Born and raised in Sydney and now based in Melbourne, Carmody first wrote The Shadows that Listen at 19 years old and rewrote it at 26 years old before self-publishing it.
She said, ‘It is an honour to have the opportunity to bring The Shadows that Listen to readers with such dedicated and accomplished publishers.’
Saunders said, ‘This dazzling romantasy blends dystopian, urban and paranormal fantasy in an action-packed, enemies-to-lovers, sexy angels adventure. Louisa has already built a remarkable readership, and we are excited to build on that with a coordinated global campaign alongside our colleagues in the UK and US.’
The Shadows that Listen is slated for publication in eBook format in September 2025, with the print and audiobook formats to follow in August 2026.
Category: Local news News Rights and acquisitions