Enclave

Born of social media algorithms and convenience culture, with a biting critique of modern tribalism, Enclave, Claire G Coleman’s third novel, is Brave New World with every conceit flipped for the smartphone generation. In a future Australia, 20-year-old Christine lives with her family in Safetown. It’s a walled city, protected by security drones and guards that keep residents safe from the collapsing nations and societies beyond. It’s a good life, and Safetown citizens have everything they could want-the Agency and the algorithms see to that. But Christine isn’t content. Her father’s coldness, her mother’s drinking, Christine’s sense of not belonging and the mysterious disappearance of her best friend Jack and his family push her into despair. In this state, she admits her desire for a woman of the brown-skinned servant class, a desire that is reciprocated. This double crime against her race and the rigid values of her community sees Christine exiled into the wastelands that surround Safetown. At first, she fears that things are as the Agency says, but soon she discovers that her life has been built on a terrible lie. In the face of that revelation, Christine has no choice but to go back. For the sake of others like her trapped within, Safetown has to fall. Shot through with themes of race, class and sexuality, *Enclave *is a novel that dares to hope for a brighter future, and Coleman continues to show why she is such an important voice in Australian science fiction. *Stefen Brazulaitis is the owner of Stefen’s Books in Perth. Read his interview with Claire G Coleman about *Enclave here.

Claire G. Coleman is a Noongar writer, born in Western Australia, and now based in Naarm. Her family have been from the area around Ravensthorpe and Hopetoun on the south coast of WA since before time started being recorded. Claire wrote her black&write! Fellowship-winning book Terra Nullius while travelling around Australia in a caravan. The Old Lie (2019) was her second novel and in 2021 her acclaimed non-fiction book, Lies Damned Lies was published by Ultimo Press. Enclave is her third novel.

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