Unsheltered by Clare Moleta

Li, Frank and five year old daughter Matti live in a small town in a country of devastating extreme weather events and a society failing to cope both with the climate but also war and economic collapse. Authorities have pulled back into closely guarded 'sheltered' areas leaving smaller outlying towns to dwindle with failing power, water and transport opportunities. Entry into the sheltered places is strictly controlled and informal 'makecamps' have arisen outside the compounds. Sheltered or not all children are conscripted into the army at 15 as the country is continually at war. When Matti is eight, Li and family move to one of the camps where Frank is killed in an industrial accident. When Li is outside the camp setting snares there is a fire and the camp is destroyed. Surviving children are rounded up by authorities and sent north, no one knows where. Li sets out across the devastated land to find Matti with only her own survival skills and an unshakable need to find her daughter.

The author’s note tells us 'the setting of this novel is Australian but not Australia. Geography, distance and time have been moved around and others invented entirely' but I found little sense of place with fire, flood, wind and drought seeming to run closely together. I also found it hard to follow the various timeline threads populated by many characters. The story settled down as Li journeys across the dystopian Mad Max like landscape, living by her wits and bravely enduring multiple losses and injuries. A grim story about a world where climate change, out of control bureaucracy and exclusion have overtaken common humanity.

Themes: Dystopia, Family, Climate change, Society breakdown..

Sue Speck