The mother fault by Kate Mildenhall

This riveting new book opens to a sense of tension as Mim, the mother of two young children, is washing her hands while trying to calm her mind as she considers the inherent problems that she has been made aware of: that her husband is missing. He has been working in a mine in Indonesia – a cooperative venture between China and Australia. Questioned as to what she knows, which we know is really not much, she sits drinking tea in her home with the offer of help from the visitor from The Department, visiting her with an offer of support, but actually there to discover if she knows anything about her husband, which is nothing. As they leave they decide to take all three passports, hers and those of the children. The era is one of great oppression, The Department ruling with an iron hand and enforcing rules that are obeyed or the consequences are dire.

We are immediately plunged into anxiety, drawn in by her fear, her awareness of being a geologist in this new era, a time of great oppression and regulation overseen by powerful, manipulative governments. A decision is vital, she believes, and she sets off almost immediately, telling nobody of her plans. She travels up through the Northern Territory, and thence, she hopes to find a way to go to Indonesia by seeking a fairly innocuous fishing vessel to take her and the children. Her second dangerous decision, to cut out the micro-chip from each of their palms, is one that she considers terribly risky but she believes that it offers the only possibility of their not being able to be traced as they journey from Australia.

It is a terrifying narrative in many ways, full of fear and exploring how difficult it is to live with her deep anxiety about both her husband’s future and saving the lives of her children and her own life. A deep and terrifying tension underlies the narrative, and we are caught up in her fear, sometimes unsure of her decisions, and choices made, but understand clearly her terror and driving need to alert her husband to the questions that he is likely to face.

This book would only be suitable for adults and older adolescents as neither its topic nor the level of tension, are appropriate for younger readers.  

Elizabeth Bondar