A novel casting highly evolved beetles as a metaphor for the future of mankind on a desecrated and overheated planet. Insects were selected as the primary literary device owing to the current collapse of arthropod populations in the developed world, the consequences of which are already having a catastrophic effect on ecosystems. Surviving humans have shrunk in size and influence in this imaginary future, their new status being chronicled by a Lilliputian child named Annabelle.
The novel [80 000 words] combines the complexity of the natural world with swathes of human history. Comical and tragic, joyful and sad, hopeful and nihilistic, it is an adventure story filled with contradictions and choices that lead down unexpected pathways. It is titled ‘440 DT’, for reasons that become clear in the work.
Selling points
Los Angeles burning, sea levels rising, biodiversity vanishing. The chief selling point is that this is not happening in some imagined future. It is taking place now, in real time, and affects everybody. Instead of draining readers’ emotions with the scale of these problems, they are packaged in an entertaining work of fiction, laced with philosophical reflection upon humanity’s role on our planet.