A compelling near-future literary novel, psychological thriller and family drama.
How far would you go to save your daughter?
Set seventeen years into a very recognisable future, Fauna is an astonishing psychological drama with an incredible twist: What if the child you are carrying is not entirely human?
Using DNA technology, scientists have started to reverse the extinction of creatures like the mammoth and the Tasmanian Tiger. The benefits of this radical approach could be far-reaching. But how far will they go?
Longing for another child, Stacey is recruited by LifeBLOOD®, a company that offers massive incentives for her to join an experimental genetics program. As part of the agreement, Stacey and her husband's embryo will be blended with edited cells. Just how edited, Stacey doesn't really know. Nor does she have any idea how much her longed-for new daughter will change her life and that of her family. Or how hard she will have to fight to protect her.
Fauna is a transformative, lyrical and moving novel about love and motherhood, home and family-and what it means to be human.
'Provocative, unnerving, and entirely possible. The most frightening thing about Fauna is that it convinces. Utterly. We have all been warned.' - Sofie Laguna, Miles Franklin Award-winning author of The Eye of the Sheep
'Fauna reminds us of how exquisitely vulnerable our need to love and to nurture renders us, but tells also of the strength and wonder of this need, which - even when the definition of the word is uncertain - must lie at the heart of what it means to be human . . . Frightening, believable, yet filled with hope and tenderness.' - Peggy Frew, author of the critically acclaimed Islands
'Fauna is the story of an experiment, as every relationship, every child, every hope we cling on to is an experiment- a leap into air. It is lush and corporeal and one of the most honest books I've ever read about what we carve away for our children from our hearts, our bodies, and our possible futures. I knew when I started that this book would end, yet every moment I hoped it wouldn't.' - Amanda Niehaus, author of The Breeding Season
'Fauna lays bare an electrifying genetically re-coded future so real, so terrifying, so close, I can feel its baby breath soft against my cheek.' - Robyn Mundy, author of Wild Light
'Mazza's novel asks hard questions, yet brims with compassion. A thrilling, unsettling read.' - Paddy O'Reilly, author of The Wonders
