Arborescence

SHORTLISTED FOR THE AUREALIS AWARD FOR BEST SCIENCE FICTION NOVEL 2025

From the award-winning author of Hovering comes a strikingly original novel about what it means to grapple with a world where the very definition of humanity is changing.

'An urgent whisper of hope. This is a book to help us believe all is not lost' KATE MILDENHALL

'Original, mind-bending, uplifting' INGA SIMPSON

'Dazzling, profound. A devastating and unforgettable elegy for the planet' CHRIS FLYNN

'Arborescence is part Sally Rooney, part Stephen King. It reads like a thriller but has the tenderness and insight of poetry' BEN RAWLENCE

She's soaked, her hair is matted, her skin is red, her eyes are closed and her arms are by her side. From her bare feet small roots have formed and reach into the ground, anchoring her. If we tried to pick her up now, we'd need a saw. It would hurt. It might kill her.

Bren works for an obscure company with colleagues he's never met, and who might not be real. His partner, Caelyn, is looking for something more but isn't sure what. The only thing she knows for certain is that humans are breaking the world and she's powerless to do anything about it.

One day Caelyn finds a group in a forest who believe that if they stand still for long enough they will become trees. And then she discovers another... The idea is spreading. Soon, people go missing and trees appear in unlikely places. Is it really possible?

As cities decay and the world becomes greener, Caelyn sees nothing to fear. Bren is not so sure. Finally, they must ask themselves what they're prepared to give up - and if they are ready to stand still.

Arborescence is a compelling, deeply moving novel about connection and disconnection, ambition and apathy, loss and hope, and how we don't always know what we have until the damage is done.

'Davis' signature narrative playfulness and dryly humorous dialogue [sweep] us further into the story... Arborescence is a reminder of the special way fictional worlds can allow readers to retreat from, and find the fortitude to return to, their own world' THE AGE

'Speculative fiction at its best: an end-of-world story that offers green leaves of hope... Imaginative and captivating' ARTSHUB

'With Davis' sharp eye and irreverent humour, the genre-blurring story branches into the tangled roots of suburban life and the natural world' SYDNEY MORNING HERALD

'You'll be sucked in and stunned by this novel' THE AUSTRALIAN WOMEN'S WEEKLY

'Strange and beguiling' THE GUARDIAN

Praise for Hovering, winner of the Victorian Premier's Unpublished Manuscript Award

'Every now and then a book comes along that resists a neat definition. Hovering is just such a read' GOOD READING

'Immediately striking' SYDNEY MORNING HERALD

'Blackly funny' THE AGE

'In the mould of Jennifer Egan or AM Homes' THE GUARDIAN

'Compassionate, surreal, clear-eyed' NEWTOWN REVIEW OF BOOKS

'Exhilarating' KILL YOUR DARLINGS

'Transformative' ARTSHUB