Blending sci-fi climate fiction with psychological horror, THE WANTING explores themes of grief, guilt, confinement and humanity’s insatiability, asking the ultimate question “What if there is nowhere else to go?”.

With the Earth’s climate spiralling out of control, Connor and his family escape a grim and desolate future by joining a mission entrusted with the future of humankind on Mars.

But soon after they arrive at Colony One it becomes clear that a fresh start on a new planet cannot erase a dark and troubled past.

Connor’s young son Tobias mysteriously disappears after being revisited by his childhood imaginary friend, plunging the family into deep grief. Connor’s wife Elena refuses to accept Tobias’s death and, blaming Connor for his disappearance, continues to obsess over the secret lover she left behind on Earth. As Connor edges towards breakdown and Elena spirals into despair, their daughter Sofia steps up to fill the growing parental void, maturing from an intellectually rebellious teen into a confident woman desperate for independence.

With tensions already strained in the isolated single-family colony, the bizarre and unexpected arrival of a stranger, Matthaeus, apparently the only survivor of an accident in Colony Two, sets in motion a series of disturbing events. Sofia quickly becomes entranced by his strangely magnetic presence, but Connor suspects he is not who he says he is and makes a horrifying discovery.

With Tobias’s unnatural return to the colony three months after going missing, events reach a dramatic and sickening climax. When the truth is finally revealed, Connor realises that turning their back on the Earth was a terrible mistake.

The Wanting is the first installment in an epic trilogy.

Available soon.