My novel The Austens is now available for pre-order!
I’m delighted to share the news that my debut novel, The Austens, is available for pre-order. The book will be published by Pottersfield Press on September 15th.
If you’d like a signed copy, you can order from Bookmark, one of my favourite independent bookstores! (They ship internationally.)
You can also pre-order from Indigo, McNally Robinson, Woozles, Block Shop Books, LaHave River Books, Audreys Books, and many other sources. I’ll add more pre-order links on The Austens page of my website as they become available.
It’s a pleasure to share the beautiful cover with you:
The cover features a detail from an early nineteenth-century watercolour of Government House, Halifax, by J.E. Woolford (reproduced courtesy of the Nova Scotia Museum). I love that the image also includes a glimpse of Halifax harbour, just down the hill from this elegant Georgian mansion where one of the heroines of my novel, Fanny Austen, dances with her naval captain husband, Captain Charles Austen.
I’ve received wonderful endorsements for The Austens from several writers I admire, including Karen Joy Fowler, Devoney Looser, and Janet Todd, and I am tremendously grateful for their kind words.
“Deeply researched and lovingly imagined.” – Karen Joy Fowler, author of The Jane Austen Book Club
“Emsley breathes wondrous new life into those magical years when Jane was blossoming into one of the world’s greatest novelists, while Fanny’s life unfurled with marriage, children, and travel.”
– Devoney Looser, author of Wild for Austen: A Rebellious, Subversive, and Untamed Jane
“In this powerful reimagining of the stories of Fanny Palmer and Jane Austen, Sarah Emsley creates a rich and poignant context for the six novels – a context that lets us see what Austen reveals of women’s lives – and how much she omits.” – Janet Todd, author of Living with Jane Austen and Jane Austen and Shelley in the Garden
My aunt was the first person to pre-order my first novel—in fact, she ordered it decades before I dreamt of writing this novel about Jane Austen and her family. When I was in high school, I used to invite friends and family to sign their names on the ceiling of my bedroom (thanks, Mom and Dad, for letting me do that…), and here’s what my aunt wrote:
If you’d like to help more readers discover The Austens (or any other book you want to support!), here are some suggestions:
Buy a copy for yourself and/or as a gift! Pre-ordering is especially helpful as it gives the publisher an idea of the level of interest in the book. (Here’s the link to pre-order a signed copy from Bookmark.)
Tell friends in person or online. Write a short—or long!—review. Posting reviews on Goodreads and Amazon (among other places) can be very helpful. Adding the novel to your “Want to Read” list on Goodreads can also help more readers discover it.
Request the book from your local library! If they don’t have a copy, suggest that they consider purchasing it.
I’ll share more details about upcoming events and readings soon, including the Halifax launch for The Austens. If you know of a bookstore or group that might like to invite me to speak (in person or at an online event), please get in touch.
I took this photo of Government House a few weeks ago at the Lieutenant Governor’s Garden Party
Thanks so much to all of you, dear readers, for the conversations we’ve had here over the years about Jane Austen and her life and works. I appreciate your interest in my writing and photos, and I’m excited to share this novel with you!
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Here are the links to the last two posts, in case you missed them:
Shawna Lemay’s tribute to Jane Austen: on learning to “view the world at a comedic distance”
A Bookmark Plaque in Halifax, NS for Budge Wilson’s Story “The Leaving” (details about the Budge Wilson Bookmark and the fundraiser our Nova Scotia Reading Circle for Project Bookmark launched recently)
(P.S. If you’re interested in the celebration of “Jane Austen in the Public Gardens” in Halifax on August 17th, rsvp on our Facebook event page. All are welcome!)
Read more about my books, including St. Paul’s in the Grand Parade, Jane Austen’s Philosophy of the Virtues, and Jane Austen and the North Atlantic, here.
Copyright Sarah Emsley 2025 ~ All rights reserved. No AI training: material on http://www.sarahemsley.com may not be used to “train” generative AI technologies.
