Fauna is a compelling novel, I started it last night and loafed in bed today until I'd finished reading it. The really interesting thing about it, is that although you find out what happens in the end, you don't, not really, and that is very creepy indeed. The novel is a highly intelligent work of fiction which made me think of the disconcerting issues raised by Paddy O'Reilly's remarkable novel The Wonders which also raised questions about what it is that makes us human.

Fauna is set in a very near future, in a world so very nearly like the present. It begins in the everyday Perth suburbs, with a family eating takeaway in the messiness of daily life, the kids Emmy and Jake going to school and weekend sport, Isak (the father) busy with work and paying the bills, and Stacey, newly pregnant ad wholly absorbed in her future child. There are brief allusions to the messiness of the world on TV, and to the comfort and relief of watching people cook and renovate houses.

But with the birth of the infant, the family takes up an offer of a lifestyle far beyond their means and they move to a beautiful but isolated property in southwest WA where the family's predicament is less likely to arouse interest. This suits the researchers who are operating on the edges of legality but it exacerbates Stacey's loneliness. Like The Wonders, this novel draws attention to the intrusive media which can make life hell for anyone who is different, and she fears interaction with anyone outside their small family in case awkward questions are asked. Because what this couple have done is to assuage their longing for another child by participating in an IVF research project which mixes their genes with those of some other creature. It's part of a project to reverse the extinction of creatures like the Tasmanian Tiger. LifeBLOOD® does not tell them much about what they are in for, but with the arrival of Asta, their anxieties move far beyond worrying about whether their semi-human offspring will be hairy or not.

The novel traces Asta's development year by year in successive chapters, and what becomes clear is that the confidentiality provisions of the contract they have signed have turned their lives into something resembling a witness protection program.

To read the rest of my review please visit https://anzlitlovers.com/2020/02/22/fauna-by-donna-mazza/ ( )