Speculative Fiction / Cli Fi
Date Published: Oct 2023
Publisher: BAD PRESS iNK
It’s 2050 and climate change catastrophe isn’t the future...
it’s now. And climate refugees aren’t other people... it’s
you.
The streets are a spider’s web of new tributaries. Everything is
underwater. Don’t worry about us, but nothing is the same
anymore.
It’s 2050 and the River Rhône has flooded the town of Arles in
France so Helen and Isha leave to join their adopted daughter Jana and
eleven-month-old granddaughter Ayo in England.
But at Calais, they find that if Isha crosses the Channel, she will be
immediately deported as her grandparents were Ugandan-Asian. Faced with the
terrible dilemma, Helen chooses to remain with Isha.
Homeless and now stateless, they decide to seek refuge in a friend’s
Swiss mountain chalet, but to avoid immigration checkpoints they have to
walk, following the Via Francigena, an ancient pilgrimage route from
Canterbury to Rome, and now the preferred escape corridor for refugees
fleeing climate catastrophes.
Horrified at her parents embarking on such a dangerous journey, Jana
resolves to follow. However, this is not so easy.
They communicate whenever and however they can while battling with
exhaustion, terror, and virulent xenophobia as people struggle to protect
their increasingly scarce resources.
The journey ends in Parma, Italy, a perfect destination for reasons they
could never have imagined.
Praise for Future Imperfect
"Future Imperfect is a thought-provoking and timely book that explores a
not-too-distant future where environmental changes and social divisions have
reshaped society… It will make you reflect on the choices we make
today and the impact they will have on our future."
Kumi Naidoo: Human Rights Activist
International Executive Director of Greenpeace International 2009-2015
Secretary General of Amnesty International 2018-2020
"an incredibly good read… both deeply personal and political, it will
become part of the canon climate novels."
Rehad Desai
Producer / Director: Miners Shot Down (2014), How to Steal a Country (2019)
and Everything Must Fall (2019)
"This is one of those rare books that becomes part of you…. An
engrossing read."
Terry Shakinovsky, author and book journalist
Review
I found that a lot of the creativity of this work comes mostly in placing the reader right in the middle of the world that the lead character faces from the very beginning.
The author made these characters so very creative and engaging from start to finish.
There is a lot here to enjoy with an action-packed tale with a wide range of ups and downs to keep the reader on the edge.
About the Author
After clambering up and falling through a 20m roof at school (avoiding
lessons), breaking several significant bones, Babette’s equestrian
career was over until her mother suggested she continue with the safer art
of dressage-riding. For this, she trained in Germany and rode
professionally, but after 4 years, she returned to the UK to, as she said,
grow up. She took and passed three A levels and then a Humanities degree,
and with these survived as a freelance journalist and TV researcher in
Bristol until she met her husband, became a hippy and got pregnant. Wanting
a better life for their daughter, they decided to live off the land in
Portugal, which worked for a few years.
Meanwhile, she wrote anything and everything, fiction, non-fiction, some
published, some lucrative, some not, including young adult novels and
accounts of her 1000km journeys along St James Way and Via Francigena on
horseback. With her third husband, Babette manages their publishing company
for the LightFoot guides.
Babette was born in Shropshire but has lived and worked long-term in seven
countries, including on a boat and in a jungle. Now living in Johannesburg,
in 2022, she received her Masters degree in Creative Writing from the
University of Witwatersrand and is currently preparing for an English
doctorate at Stellenbosch University, where she will undoubtedly be the
oldest but most enthusiastic student.
Contact Links
Website
Facebook
Twitter
Blog
Goodreads
Instagram
Purchase Links
Universal
Amazon UK
a Rafflecopter giveaway
Posts
