It’s seven years since tensions rose in the wake of COVID. Terror attacks, protests and strikes were followed by climate change accords. A period of grace has now been shattered: perfect babies are being stillborn. Scientists struggle for answers. As the numbers rise the government cracks down: smart watches track everyone’s movements, pharmacists record pregnancy test results, and laws ensure babies are born only in hospitals. There’s a whisper that teenage girls are disappearing.
Midwife Emma is exhausted by her work and puzzled by the ‘doll babies’. When her teenage daughter, Lainey, finds herself in trouble, the dangers of this new world come too close to home and Emma and Lainey find themselves in a battle against a conspiracy.
Sara Foster has set this pulsating thriller in a post-COVID nightmarish world that feels chillingly believable. Surveillance is sold as necessary to keep citizens safe, while women’s rights are sacrificed, allegedly to keep them and their babies safe. The Hush is a brilliant and timely book, with a cast of strong female characters, that kept me enthralled from the first page.
Reviewed by Melinda Woledge
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
I live in Perth, Western Australia, with my husband and two young daughters.
Before I was a writer I worked as a book editor, at first in-house at HarperCollins UK and then freelance. I have edited and proofread well over 100 books, fiction and non-fiction, including novels by Paullina Simons and Liane Moriarty.
I was one of the original editors of the Kids’ Night In book series, which has been raising money for War Child since 2003.
I was born and raised in England, but I’ve always had family connections to Australia, and we visited the east coast a few times during my childhood. My introduction to Australian literature was reading All the Rivers Run by Nancy Cato, and after that I wanted to be Delie Gordon for quite a while. In 1999 I made sure I got to stand at the wheel of the Philadelphia paddle steamer when we visited the Murray River region.
My first pop concert, aged 12, was a Stock Aitken and Waterman event featuring my first love Jason Donovan. I was on a high for weeks afterwards. Little did I know that twenty years later I would end up editing his autobiography.
In 2011 I went to Japan while researching Shallow Breath, and visited Taiji, the town famous for its horrific dolphin drives. I was only there for two days, and thankfully I didn’t have to witness the brutal hunt up close, although I watched the banger boats drive the dolphins in from a distance. However, I did encounter the dolphins in captivity in the sea pens, being broken and starved while trained for human entertainment. Those images will stay with me forever.
I met my husband Matt when I was 19. We both love to travel, and we tend to pick places where we can pursue our passions for animal encounters and the natural world. Whenever life allows, we’re always keen to have another adventure.
0 Comments