As the resourceful, relentless Li tracks her lost daughter across a disintegrating country, the journey will test the limits of her trust, her hope and her love. Unsheltered will leave you wrung out and gasping.
Set against a background of social breakdown and destructive weather, Unsheltered tells the story of a woman’s search for her daughter. Li never wanted to bring a child into a world like this but now that eight-year-old Matti is missing, she will stop at nothing to find her.
As she crosses the great barren country alone and on foot, living on what she can find and fuelled by visions of her daughter just out of sight ahead, Li will have every instinct tested. She knows the odds against her: an uncompromising landscape, an indifferent system, time running out, and the risks of any encounters on the road. But the greatest obstacles of all might be her own uncertainty and the ghosts of her past. Because even if she finds her, how can she hope to shield Matti from what is to come?
In Clare Moleta’s debut novel, Unsheltered, she imagines a dystopian, future Australia. Yet, almost nothing is recognisable to the contemporary reader. It is an unflinching, uncompromising, and at times shocking portrayal of our future world.
The barely-governed society is chaotic, food and water are scarce resources, and extreme weather events like ‘howlers’ and ‘dusters’ sweep through the haphazard campsites, leaving destruction and a desolate landscape in its wake. For those of us feeling anxious about the impacts of climate change that lie ahead, Moleta’s novel is certainly a wake-up call.
In this midst of this unrecognisable world, readers follow reluctant mother Li as she embarks on an unforgettable journey to find her daughter. Li’s determination to find her child is one many parents will find themselves relating to, and through her story, Moleta forces readers to ask themselves: how far would they go to save their own children?
Li’s struggle is also that of a reluctant parent; of someone who was unsure about bringing a child into this hopeless world. Amongst this darkness, flashbacks illuminate Li’s earlier life with her daughter, and the innocence that Matti radiated. Despite the horrors of Matti’s world, she has the same desires as any kid. Moleta touchingly explores the relationship between the mother and daughter duo, showing how their bond shines through even the bleakest of times.
At times tender, at times terrifying, Unsheltered is an engrossing, unpredictable novel that keeps the reader in suspense all the way to the end. A brilliant feat of imagination that asks if our humanity is the only protection we have left. Unsheltered will affect you in ways a book hasn’t done in years.
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