MELT

Melt offers a vision of adaptation to an emerging catastrophe. A near-term future that forces us to reconsider whether we can maintain ideas of “otherness” and keep our humanity.

Vai Shuster arrives in Auckland to advocate for the delivery of a long-standing promise: a place in New Zealand for her island’s people as climate destruction makes their home uninhabitable.

Panicked, but endlessly adaptive, the world is awake to the reality of three degrees climate breakdown. In 2048 the worst effects are yet to be felt, but the destructive phase is locked in. A great reshuffle of people and nature is occurring.

But this is not an apocalypse for all. Vai finds herself in a world that the powerful and their mid-level helpers are managing to navigate, and new opportunities are emerging. There are both forces of integration and disintegration at work. Antarctica is melting and New Zealand is a gateway to the last continent. Can Vai’s community help build a new Hong Kong in southern New Zealand to serve Antarctica? Or is New Zealand fully occupied by the demands of the big three – China, America and India - as they begin to direct the settlement of Antarctica?

The scale and pace of change are drowning Vai’s voice, turning what should be a simple mission into a desperate hunt for somewhere to stand before it’s too late. Brave and resourceful, Vai sets out on an epic journey into the new world, one that is finding the poor to be superfluous. How much will she risk for her community and what price will she pay?

ISBN: 9780473470531
Imprint: Mary Egan Publishing
Publication Date: June 2019
Dimensions: 153mm x 230mm
Weight: 360g
No. Of Pages: 290