I love a sci fi book you wouldn’t shelve in sci fi. You know, a story about something wildly futuristic that transcends the generic conventions of sci fi. (Margaret Atwood is the queen of this! Check out seminal text The Handmaid’s Tale and her amazing Maddaddam trilogy for a dose of amazing weirdness.)
Donna Mazza’s Fauna (another excellent secondhand find!) is about a regular Australian family with a very unusual pregnancy. Set 30 years in the future, Stacey and Isak sign up for an experimental medical program to carry and raise a baby that’s only partly human.
The coolest thing about this book is how the sci-fi elements, while fascinating, actually take a backseat in this story which is really about the complexities of motherhood and familial love.
I really felt Stacey’s acute anxiety as she gestates and births a child whose ancestors haven’t been seen on earth for many thousands of years. Mazza writes so beautifully about the relationships between the characters, and particularly Stacey’s connection to the natural world, drawing a clear contrast between the environment around her and the strange situation she finds herself in. While Stacey is carrying a somewhat alien fetus, the real tension in the story comes from the fears and worries she has about her baby – which aren’t that different to her concerns about her two “normal” children.
Some books succeed because they have a corker plot. Others, because of beautiful writing. Fauna is one of those lovely books that has both. This is a book I found myself thinking about a lot when I wasn’t reading it, and I couldn’t stop telling people about the story.
Fauna is a thought-provoking and moving book, with tender and elegant prose. I’ll be hunting up Mazza’s other work as soon as possible.
Cherie lives, works, and reads in beautiful Tasmania – the green island gem below Australia known for its gorgeous landscape and beautiful wildlife. She holds multiple academic qualifications in English, journalism, and fine art theory, and has worked in writing, editing, and communications roles for more than a decade. Most importantly, she has a deep love for books that began as soon as she learned how to read.
Old, new, any genre – for Cherie, reading is about as vital as breathing. She is interested in sharing books that move, excite, and compel, so others can share the joy of a truly great read. While she reads across most genres, her favourite is literary fiction. Particularly anything by Margaret Atwood, Ottessa Moshfegh, Kate Atkinson, Elizabeth Berg, Ann Patchett, and Anne Tyler.
Cherie frequents Tasmania’s beautiful boutique book shops as well as scouring secondhand shops for books to add to her extensive home library. Catch up with her on LinkedIn and on Instagram.
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