The world shifted slowly, then so fast, while they watched but didn’t see.

In Kate Mildenhall’s compulsive The Mother Fault, Mim’s comfortable, micro-chipped life in suburban Melbourne and her assumptions about the neutrality of the omniscient Department are upended when her husband Ben goes missing while working in Indonesia.   Set in a near future and very recognisable Australia,  The Mother Fault is at once a literary thriller, a family drama and a riveting exploration of the consequences of a passive population and the costs – and rewards – of fighting back.

Chaired by Cath Kenneally