Penguin Random House Australia to publish new M.L. Stedman novel, A Far-flung Life, in March 2026

Penguin Random House Australia (PRH AU) has acquired what is set to become one of the biggest international literary novels of 2026. A Far-flung Life by M.L. Stedman, author of the global bestseller The Light Between Oceans, is a powerful drama set against the timeless landscape of the Australian outback.

Beverley Cousins, Fiction Publisher, acquired ANZ rights and PRH will publish simultaneously with Doubleday in the UK. Translation rights have already sold in significant deals at pre-empt or at auction in eighteen territories.

Synopsis

A truck rumbles along a lonely outback road. A moment’s inattention, and in a few muddled seconds, the lives of the MacBride family are shattered. But instead of leaving them to heal, fate comes back for them in a twist of consequences that will cause one of them to lose their life and another to sacrifice theirs for the sake of an innocent child. Unfolding in Western Australia’s vast interior, where the weather is a capricious god and a million-acre sheep station is barely a dot on the map, A Far-flung Life explores the hearts of a handful of isolated souls and the secrets they shield in order to survive.

About the author

M.L. Stedman’s prize-winning debut, The Light Between Oceans, was a Sunday Times and New York Times bestseller, published in around forty-five languages, selling almost five million copies worldwide. In Australia it won three ABIA Awards and two Indie Awards. It was made into a DreamWorks film starring Michael Fassbender and Alicia Vikander.

Quotes

• M.L. Stedman (author) says: ‘The wonderful Beverley Cousins and the whole team at PRH ANZ did such a brilliant job of publishing The Light Between Oceans, so I feel incredibly fortunate that they’ll be bringing A Far-flung Life to Australian and New Zealand readers.’
• Beverley Cousins (publisher) says: ‘I am so thrilled to be publishing M L Stedman’s much anticipated new novel in 2026. Ten years in the writing, A Far-flung Life offers a truly immersive experience, transporting the reader to a sprawling sheep property in Western Australia and into the lives of the MacBride family. As with her debut, The Light Between Oceans, Stedman has written an unforgettable epic novel that is destined to be a global bestseller and an Australian classic.’