Acquisition of Rachel Morton’s debut novel

UQP is delighted to announce the acquisition of Rachel Morton’s debut novel, which won the 2024 Victorian Premier’s Literary Award for an unpublished manuscript. Of that manuscript, the judges said: ‘Ruminations on belonging and the sense of being an outsider reveal how an insatiable desire for something more from life can sometimes cause harm rather than good. In a meditative and hypnotic style, Morton has drawn in-depth characters with complex relationships.’

Now entitled The Sun Was Electric Light, the novel opens as Ruth, disillusioned with her life in New York, returns to a lake town in Guatemala where she had been happy a decade earlier. There, in Panajachel, she meets two very different women: the calm and practical Emilie, and the turbulent and intoxicating Carmen. Deciding to stay and build a life at the lake, Ruth finds work first as a nanny to a wealthy local family, then as an English teacher at village schools. Meanwhile she becomes increasingly infatuated by her friendship with Carmen, pushing away the stability of her connection with Emilie. As Carmen’s fragile relationship with the world splinters, the difference between being a visitor and truly belonging becomes clear, and Ruth is forced to act. The Sun Was Electric Light is an exceptional debut novel about grief, belonging and what it means to live a good life.

UQP has acquired world rights and will publish in April 2025.

Publisher Aviva Tuffield says:

‘I was so impressed when I started reading Rachel Morton’s manuscript – there is an assuredness and texture to her writing that suggests it’s the work of a more experienced novelist. Rachel has already developed her own particular style and plangent voice, which fits perfectly with the subtlety of this multilayered story. The Sun Was Electric Light is for lovers of the fiction of Helen Garner, Jessica Au, Rachel Cusk and Deborah Levy. I challenge any reader to emerge from this novel unmoved, or unscathed.’

Rachel Morton says:

‘It is an honour and a privilege to be working with Aviva Tuffield and UQP to develop my debut novel. The manuscript was inspired by time I spent in Guatemala many years ago. Over the years, the memories of the lake in Guatemala became a powerful place in my psyche, which I carried with me alongside my actual life. I was inspired to write this manuscript to explore the themes of belonging, alienation, the complicated attempt to connect with people and places, and the struggle to find a meaningful way of life.’

About Rachel Morton

Rachel Morton is writer from south-west Victoria. Her poetry has been published in various publications including Meanjin, The Moth, The New Welsh Review and Crannog. Rachel was shortlisted for the 2019 Australian Catholic University Prize for Poetry. The Sun Was Electric Light is her first novel.