Wasp Season — Jennifer Scoullar

This contemporary Australian thriller is on one level a story of family disintegration and social alienation. It concerns Beth, her estranged husband Mark, and his beautiful young girlfriend, Helen. The wasp tale unfolding in Beth's garden provides the reader with a fascinating and compelling parallel story that holds up a distorted mirror to the human drama. As the narrative gathers momentum, the connections between the two worlds come sharply into focus and it is clear that the lives of Beth and the others are neither safe from nor separate to the natural world.