Cirrus@Austlit

'Her heart is old now, and tired. I imagine the physical process of the blood coursing through atria and ventricles, the ageing heart muscle clenching and relaxing, pumping the blood on the long journey through the veins and tributaries of her body. I imagine the beats becoming sluggish, slower, with the constant effort of motion: expand and contract; breathe in and breathe out.'

'Some time in a not-too-distant future, with an increasingly inhospitable climate, a faceless authoritarian Australian government – unable to support a sparse population – is forcing people into overcrowded “inclusion zones”. The outside world is racked by crisis after crisis. Whole countries are bought and sold, entire populations cast into horrific refugee camps that engulf continents, food supply is shaky – everything is shaky. It is a callous and cruel society, and it feels terribly familiar. '