Straya

I love a sunburnt dystopia.

Straya lies in ruins. A once proud nation, former Australia has regressed into a patchwork civilization cowering under the deadly heat of a merciless sun. Savage violence lurks around every corner. Good pubs, but.

Affable young mutant, Franga, risks life and double-jointed limb to help provide for his makeshift family of mutie kids and increasingly senile friend and mentor, Ken Ages. After finding a strange artifact in the deadly Downlow district, Franga inadvertently starts a horrifying chain reaction...

Something terrifying takes form in New Sydney. A colossal beast rises, as unspeakably powerful as it is malevolent, and if Franga and his crew of misfits can't stop it? Then all of Straya is completely farked.

Screenwriter and journalist Anthony O'Connor's debut novel balances canny social allegory with subversive wit and an oddly optimistic sense of hope.