Random Acts of Unkindness is set in a future dystopian Melbourne. Climate change refugees camp in the Treasury Gardens. The city, a jungle of high-rise glass and steel buildings, swelters through an unbearably hot autumn. The lives of three women – Roz, Emily and Amala – are about to become entwined, with far-reaching consequences.

Roz is poor, with little money for food or Energy Credits. She is also subject to detailed visions, where she lives through someone’s death, perhaps caused by a tsunami or a bomb. Dismissed as delusional, she often calls CareLine, where she speaks to a volunteer called Emily. Emily is a university researcher who is receiving unsettling calls. Her student Amala, originally from India, hides her life as a kept woman from her brother.

Each woman is about to have her life derailed by a random act of unkindness. But while random acts can change the course of lives, they can also act as a catalyst for positive change.

Against the backdrop of a skillfully drawn future that feels all too real, this story shows that no matter the technological or political changes wrought by climate emergency, human connection remains vital.

Reviewed by Melinda Woledge

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