Savage and apocalyptic, this is the new world.
Savage and apocalyptic, this is the new world.
Devoid of rain, the earth has shrunk to dust and salt, hemmed by a swollen sea. Survivors gather to re-establish order but it’s nothing like before.
It is Jeremiah’s world.
Commanded by the cruel Garrick, Jem is a Watchman and hunter of Disses: rebels who dare to challenge the Tower and its ruling Council. Loner by design and killer by nature, he’s unapologetically part of a cruel regime until a new assignment exposes a web of deceit, and past sins demand their reckoning. When a young boy elicits his sympathy, and an enigmatic woman his interest, Jem is made to question everything he believes before undertaking one last terrifying mission. Now he must do unto others if he's to take care of his own.
In this dark and compelling first novel from a stunning new voice in fiction, it is impossible to know who is friend or foe, hero or villain.
“The world-building here is excellent. Abbott is strong on the anthropological details. She also shows how the good intentions of a community are perverted not just by scarcity but by emergent patterns of power and the Nietzschean urge to preserve them at all costs. An accomplished and highly readable debut.”
Ed Wright, The Australian
“Watershed is brilliantly imagined, clever and just plain thrilling. Cancel everything, you won’t be able to stop reading.”
Toni Jordan
“Abbott's ability as a female writer to get inside the skin of the young Jeremiah is one of the book's highlights.”
Linda Morris, The Sunday Age
Aurealis Awards
Shortlisted • 2016 • Aurealis Awards - Best Science Fiction Novel