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22, April 2025

Bakers Lane acquires McLean novel

Bakers Lane Books has acquired world rights to The One Remaining by debut Australian novelist Paula McLean.

Publisher Ginny Grant said: ‘The One Remaining is a story of novelist Hilary Mason, reflecting on her life and processing her fear and grief following a traumatic childhood episode. Writing her memoir gives her a way to explore what she endured and the secrets she has hidden from those she loves.’

Author Paula McLean says: ‘Although the book begins with a violent crime, it is more a story of how we can carry fear and grief with us, sometimes unresolved throughout a lifetime, and how it can affect the way we go about living a life with such burdens. But the book is also a love story and it is Hilary’s relationship with Ricco that grounds her and allows her to do some of her best writing.’

Paula McLean is the immediate past Deputy Chair and Patron of the Stella Prize, and now a NSW Ambassador. She is on the board of the Country Education Foundation, a member of the She Gives Advisory Group and a trustee of McLean Foundation, which supports conservation, education, domestic violence and literature. She began the Nature Writing Prize, administered by The Nature Conservancy Australia. A former fiction and educational publishing editor, Paula is also the author of Good Foods for Babies and Toddlers.

McLean says: ‘I am honoured that The One Remaining is being published as the very first title of Fearless Press, a women’s focused publishing imprint. Supporting the voices of women has been at the forefront of my work throughout my career.’

The One Remaining will be published under the Fearless Press imprint in late 2025 in the Australian and Aotearoa New Zealand markets.