'Forever entwined, Sea and Serene live isolated in the Australian alpine wilderness, together with Wren - the young man who helps care for them. Each have found peace in this wild, fierce landscape, and they live in harmony, largely self-sufficient.
'One day Wren discovers a woman on the road nearby, badly injured and unconscious. He brings her back to the cottage, and he and the twins nurse her back to health. But the arrival of this outsider shatters the dynamic within, with unforeseen consequences.
'Lyrical and poetic, Fusion is a unique and haunting modern-gothic tale that has at its heart questions of selfhood, dependency, difference and love. It is the compelling first novel by the award-winning author of Madness: A Memoir.' (Publication summary)
Epigraph: 'Your heartbeats were in my heart and your breath was upon my face and I knew you all.' - Gibran Khalil Gibran
'Conjoined twins Sea and Sabine were born “in the deepest part of the night when the moon was dark and the clouds low, Venus and Mars were obscured and the stars stopped blinking for a whole heartbeat”.' (Introduction)
'Fusion is the fiction début from the author of the acclaimed Madness: A memoir (2013). It draws on Australian gothic and older gothic traditions. With the meditative possibilities of walking alpine ranges, it also portrays claustrophobia and compulsion. Its drama centres on a small and wounded cast, a reclusive household that suddenly encounters the outside world.' (Introduction)
'Conjoined twins have long been a source of fascination, if not the subjects of disturbing scrutiny. Perhaps the most famous were Chang and Eng Bunker, who were brought from Thailand – hence “Siamese twins” – to America to be exhibited and, despite their experience of racism, later became wealthy slave owners in the antebellum south. More recently, Abby and Brittany Hensel, American sisters conjoined at the torso, have been the subject of extensive media coverage, including a reality TV show.' (Introduction)
'Kate Richards' Fusion tells the story of conjoined twins, their carer, and an injured stranger who is brought into their isolated bush home. Reviewer Jacqui Davies described it as 'part fairytale, part Australian Gothic thriller'. She spoke to the author.'
'Conjoined twins Sea and Sabine were born “in the deepest part of the night when the moon was dark and the clouds low, Venus and Mars were obscured and the stars stopped blinking for a whole heartbeat”.' (Introduction)
'Kate Richards' Fusion tells the story of conjoined twins, their carer, and an injured stranger who is brought into their isolated bush home. Reviewer Jacqui Davies described it as 'part fairytale, part Australian Gothic thriller'. She spoke to the author.'
'Conjoined twins have long been a source of fascination, if not the subjects of disturbing scrutiny. Perhaps the most famous were Chang and Eng Bunker, who were brought from Thailand – hence “Siamese twins” – to America to be exhibited and, despite their experience of racism, later became wealthy slave owners in the antebellum south. More recently, Abby and Brittany Hensel, American sisters conjoined at the torso, have been the subject of extensive media coverage, including a reality TV show.' (Introduction)
'Fusion is the fiction début from the author of the acclaimed Madness: A memoir (2013). It draws on Australian gothic and older gothic traditions. With the meditative possibilities of walking alpine ranges, it also portrays claustrophobia and compulsion. Its drama centres on a small and wounded cast, a reclusive household that suddenly encounters the outside world.' (Introduction)
