Set in an Australia of the near-future, climate crisis has irrevocably altered the landscape: meat is a luxury few can afford, farmlands are contaminated and every movement is monitored by the Department. When Mim's FIFO husband is reported missing she is left with little comfort and no assistance. In desperation and against orders, she gathers her children close and goes looking for him.

A riveting, dystopian novel with echoes of Margaret Atwood and Charlotte Woods, The Mother Fault is scarily plausible.