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AbstractHistoryArchive Description
'Set 17 years into a very recognisable future, Fauna is an astonishing psychological drama with an incredible twist: What if the child you are carrying is not entirely human?
'Using DNA technology, scientists have started to reverse the extinction of creatures like the mammoth and the Tasmanian Tiger. The benefits of this radical approach could be far-reaching. But how far will they go?
'Longing for another child, Stacey is recruited by a company who offer massive incentives for her to join an experimental programme called LifeBLOOD. As part of the agreement, she and her husband's embryo will be blended with 'edited cells'. Just how edited, Stacey doesn't really know. Nor does she have any idea how much her longed-for new daughter will change her life and that of her family. Or how hard she will have to fight to protect her.
'Fauna is a transformative, lyrical and moving novel about love and motherhood, home and family - and what it means to be human.' (Publication summary)
Notes
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Dedication: For my Mother, her Mother, My Children, Their Father and Mine
Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of
Other Formats
- Sound recording.
- Dyslexic edition.
Works about this Work
-
Breast Augmentation and Artificial Insemination: Monstrous Medicine and the Female Body in Recent Fiction
2022
single work
criticism
— Appears in: The Australasian Journal of Popular Culture , vol. 11 no. 1-2 2022; (p. 163-177)'Recent fiction that depicts medical intervention upon the female body as monstrous reveals societal anxiety around aesthetic and reproductive medicine. As biotechnology rapidly advances, the female body continues to be a site on which improvements, efficiencies and controls are imposed. While Kristeva’s abject and Creed’s ‘monstrous-feminine’ explain the capacity of the female body to imbue horror, this literary analysis explores how the experience of the medicalized female body can convey anxiety relating to escalating aesthetic and reproductive demands. Works of fiction by Kawakami, Mazza, Hortle, Booth, Giddings, Gildfind and Taylor are considered in terms of medicine and the female body, with the narratives revealing common themes of monstrosity. Bakhtin’s grotesque and Kristeva’s abject informs the analysis, as does Foucault’s concept of the ‘medical gaze’. Bartky’s ‘fashion-beauty complex’ frames the investigation into depictions of cosmetic surgery, while the impact of capitalism is considered in relation to reproductive technologies and medical experimentation. The power structures that medicine operates within are considered and the article argues that the representation of medicine as monstrous in relation to the female body expresses collective unease about the increasingly unstable boundaries of the human body itself.' (Publication abstract)
-
Instincts : A Novel Exploring the Riskiness of Motherhood
2020
single work
review
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , June-July no. 422 2020; (p. 35)
— Review of Fauna 2020 single work novel'While having a child is an act of hope and joy for many, it is also risky. One can heed expert advice, prepare, even throw money at the endeavour, but there is no guarantee that the creation or nurturing of a child will go as planned.' (Introduction)
-
Donna Mazza : Fauna
2020
single work
review
— Appears in: The Saturday Paper , 22-28 February 2020;
— Review of Fauna 2020 single work novel'Seven years ago, Harvard professor and resurrection biologist George Church made headlines around the world when he announced that we already have the technical know-how to bring back Neanderthals, and that nothing wanted but an “extremely adventurous female human” to act as surrogate mother. Donna Mazza’s second novel takes us into the mind of just such a female, although the woman at the heart of Mazza’s story seems less motivated by the adventure of science than an impossible craving to sacrifice her humanity.' (Introduction)
-
Among the Animals
Anne Barnetson
(interviewer),
2019
single work
interview
— Appears in: Books + Publishing , October vol. 99 no. 4 2019; (p. 20-21) 'Donna Mazza's novel Fauna is set in a near-future in which a woman is enticed into an experimental program that mixes her embryo with genetically edited cells Reviewer Anne Barnetson says the novel 'skilfully fuses the real concerns of parenting in the age of catastrophic climate change with a dystopian plot'. She speaks to the author.'
-
Donna Mazza : Fauna
2020
single work
review
— Appears in: The Saturday Paper , 22-28 February 2020;
— Review of Fauna 2020 single work novel'Seven years ago, Harvard professor and resurrection biologist George Church made headlines around the world when he announced that we already have the technical know-how to bring back Neanderthals, and that nothing wanted but an “extremely adventurous female human” to act as surrogate mother. Donna Mazza’s second novel takes us into the mind of just such a female, although the woman at the heart of Mazza’s story seems less motivated by the adventure of science than an impossible craving to sacrifice her humanity.' (Introduction)
-
Instincts : A Novel Exploring the Riskiness of Motherhood
2020
single work
review
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , June-July no. 422 2020; (p. 35)
— Review of Fauna 2020 single work novel'While having a child is an act of hope and joy for many, it is also risky. One can heed expert advice, prepare, even throw money at the endeavour, but there is no guarantee that the creation or nurturing of a child will go as planned.' (Introduction)
-
Among the Animals
Anne Barnetson
(interviewer),
2019
single work
interview
— Appears in: Books + Publishing , October vol. 99 no. 4 2019; (p. 20-21) 'Donna Mazza's novel Fauna is set in a near-future in which a woman is enticed into an experimental program that mixes her embryo with genetically edited cells Reviewer Anne Barnetson says the novel 'skilfully fuses the real concerns of parenting in the age of catastrophic climate change with a dystopian plot'. She speaks to the author.' -
Breast Augmentation and Artificial Insemination: Monstrous Medicine and the Female Body in Recent Fiction
2022
single work
criticism
— Appears in: The Australasian Journal of Popular Culture , vol. 11 no. 1-2 2022; (p. 163-177)'Recent fiction that depicts medical intervention upon the female body as monstrous reveals societal anxiety around aesthetic and reproductive medicine. As biotechnology rapidly advances, the female body continues to be a site on which improvements, efficiencies and controls are imposed. While Kristeva’s abject and Creed’s ‘monstrous-feminine’ explain the capacity of the female body to imbue horror, this literary analysis explores how the experience of the medicalized female body can convey anxiety relating to escalating aesthetic and reproductive demands. Works of fiction by Kawakami, Mazza, Hortle, Booth, Giddings, Gildfind and Taylor are considered in terms of medicine and the female body, with the narratives revealing common themes of monstrosity. Bakhtin’s grotesque and Kristeva’s abject informs the analysis, as does Foucault’s concept of the ‘medical gaze’. Bartky’s ‘fashion-beauty complex’ frames the investigation into depictions of cosmetic surgery, while the impact of capitalism is considered in relation to reproductive technologies and medical experimentation. The power structures that medicine operates within are considered and the article argues that the representation of medicine as monstrous in relation to the female body expresses collective unease about the increasingly unstable boundaries of the human body itself.' (Publication abstract)
Awards
- 2021 longlisted Davitt Award — Best Adult Crime Novel
- 2020 finalist Aurealis Awards for Excellence in Australian Speculative Fiction — Science Fiction Division — Novel
