Climate Fiction: Laura Jean McKay and Lucy Ayrton in Conversation

Things We Lose in the Waves - Lucy Ayrton Jenny's world is falling apart. Ravenspurn is falling into the sea. The little town is perched on a remote cliff, and every day, frequent storms are claiming more land, more homes and more livelihoods. The news of her father's sudden death forces Jenny's return to her hometown from London, but the ravaged landscape now feels like a foreign place. In a small town like Ravenspurn, the rifts between her and those she once knew are so deep they threaten to swallow her whole. Jenny is now responsible for her late father's small pub, and its staff, Alex and Si - her former best friend and ex-boyfriend, now a couple. She's stuck living in her childhood bedroom, orbiting awkwardly around her distant mother. Her boyfriend is still in London, separated by more than just distance. Each day that Jenny remains, the town seems to shrink around her, but she knows soon the pandemic will be over. Soon, she'll be able to return to her real life. But the secrets and the unspoken regrets that have come to haunt Jenny are not so easily escaped. In the claustrophobia of Ravenspurn, where can she turn? A timely story of a home pushed to the breaking point; Things We Lose in Waves explores how you keep afloat when your world is falling away from underneath your feet. Gunflower - Laura Jean McKay The brilliant new short story collection from the Arthur C. Clarke Award-winning author of The Animals in That Country. A family of cat farmers gets the chance to set the felines free. A group of chickens tells it like it is. A female-crewed ship ploughs through the patriarchy. A support group finds solace in a world without men. With her trademark humour, energy, and flair, McKay offers glimpses of places where dreams subsume reality, where childhood restarts, where humans embrace their animal selves and animals talk like humans. The stories in Gunflower explode and bloom in mesmerising ways, sho