An award-winning author's latest book for young adult readers is set in a futuristic Canberra, where the national capital is contained under a dome, protecting its citizens from extreme weather events, dangerous solar radiation and civil unrest.
It's a different kind of Canberra bubble in Isobelle Carmody's latest work, Comes the Night, which is chock full of Canberra references and fascinating, mind-blowing ideas about the future, which all makes for a riveting read for the young-adult audience.
The story's hero, Will, lives with his father in Fyshwick, which has been "rezoned as residential when refugees from the drowning coastal cities began to move inland".
There are CCTV cameras and drones watching everyone's every move. Mothers have taken an XD serum to "produce brilliant children", with some frightening side effects. There is a multitude of new technology including the "ophone" which can roll up and snap on your arm. Orwellian concepts such as "bad-sad legislation" have taken over. And there is a dark, pervading sense of unease under the dome, even though it has been set up to protect its citizens.
Carmody, one of Australia's most highly acclaimed authors of fantasy, lives between Brisbane and her home on the Great Ocean Road in Victoria. But she owed everything to Canberra for this latest novel.
"I didn't know Canberra at all and like most people, whenever I went there, I got instantly lost," she said, with a laugh.
But she did get to know Canberra when her daughter Adelaide decided to study music at the Australian National University and also when she was the ACT writer in residence at Gorman House in 2017.
The first spark of the novel was at the National Library viewing Marion Mahony Griffin's maps of Canberra and the idea of a planned city. She also undertook research with students in rural Queensland to understand their hopes and fears for the future.
It all culminated in a book that explores the idea of an artificial world that can infantilise its residents by keeping them too safe. And where "love and imagination" can help them to break free.
"I think what leads Will, and all of us, outside of our comfort zone is not for our own selves. It's out of love, love for other people," she said.
Canberra continues to be a big part of Carmody's life. She is combining the launch of Comes the Night with a fundraising event for a cause close to her heart.
She has convinced 30 artists to each illustrate a kite that will be auctioned online to raise money for Redkite, which supports families who have a child with cancer.
Carmody said she was passionate about the charity after agreeing to read every night to a 16-year-old girl dying from cancer.
The young fan was upset about all the things she would miss out on, including reading Carmody's last book in her Obernewtyn series.
The last book was far from finished, but Carmody agreed to read the teenager "what I had, and tell her the story of the bits that were not yet written".
The Great Kite Auction sees the 30 kites being revealed online one per day until bidding starts on November 27.
The auction ends at midnight on December 5, following a final gala event at the National Library Bookshop.
The kites, themselves, are now in Canberra, on display in the window of Smith's Alternative. They will also be displayed next month at Gorman House (December 2 to 6).
Carmody said the whole idea of the kite auction came from her wanting to use the publicity she was going to get for the publication of Comes the Night for something bigger than herself.
"It was borne of my feeling that the publicity one does to send a book into the world ought to do more than that," she said.
* Comes the Night is published Allen and Unwin
- View the kites for auction here.
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