This is a difficult book to categorize. Science fiction? Thriller? Bit of both?

It’s set at some time in the near future, where climate change, global economic meltdown and wars have led to an increase in religious fervour across the world. Sounds plausible, no? Gabrielle Fox, a psychologist and art therapist, starts a new job in a psychiatric unit and is assigned Bethany Krall, a young teenager who has killed her own mother. Bethany insists she can foresee natural disasters, and when catastrophes begin to occur on the dates she has predicted, the apocalyptic puzzle intensifies. It is, as one reviewer says, ‘part literary ecological disaster, part critique about the dangers of evangelical religion.’ Very interesting, if not entirely believable, it has proved a word of mouth hit. Recommended.

Left in waiting room