The Trespassers, by Meg Mundell (UQP, 2019)

A murder on the high seas sets the scene for the second novel by Melbourne-based Meg Mundell, but this is no whodunnit.

Rather, the near-future setting serves as a mirror for the tensions of our turbulent times as, once again, Europeans flee their homes for the promise of a better life in Australia.

In this case, a plague is driving Irish and British residents to board sailing ships bound for Down Under in an employment scheme, but their vessel, The Steadfast, becomes a political hot potato when the voyage goes awry.

Told through the viewpoints of three beautifully drawn passengers, the story is dark and unremitting as friendships form and secrets surface under the most trying of circumstances.

Tighter than Mundell’s dystopian debut, Black Glass (2011), The Trespassers targets corporate accountability, the treatment of asylum seekers, and our moral compass in the Anthropocene as the stories of hearing-impaired boy Cleary, nurse Billie and teacher Tom intersect in a thoroughly engaging tale.