Mine (Penguin Books 2018) is the debut psychological thriller by Australian writer Susi Fox, and it is a gripping story that strikes at the heart of the worst fears of a new parent. Sasha Moloney awakes after an emergency caesarean to find herself alone and unaccountably anxious. Her womb is empty but there is no baby in sight; her husband Mark is nowhere to be seen. Set over the period of only one week, the story is narrated by Sasha with flashbacks narrated by Mark, and we immediately get the sense that we don’t know whether either of them is a reliable narrator. Each of them seems to be holding secrets and avoiding aspects of the past. Sasha is shown a baby and told he is hers – but he is a boy, and from the ultrasounds she and Mark were expecting a girl. But even without this disconcerting fact, Sasha is convinced that the baby – Toby – is not hers. Her natural mother’s instinct constantly tells her that a terrible mistake has been made. But is she right, or is she suffering some form of post-birth psychosis? And if she is right, is the mix-up an honest mistake, or is there a more sinister motivation? And who knows the truth? Who is involved in the cover-up? Over seven nail-biting days, with Sasha in hospital trying to discover the truth – about her baby, about Mark and about herself – she goes from one extreme mood to another as the people around her – the doctors and nurses, her friends and family – show their true colours and reveal information to her. Whatever the truth, and regardless of whether Sasha is right or mistaken, this novel captures the terrible insecurity and sort of mental madness of doubting yourself, of not being believed by those close to you, and how particularly as a new mother, this sort of psychological trauma would wreak havoc. Complicating matters further is the fact that Sasha is a doctor herself, and so she knows the very worst that can happen. But she is also a mother, and her love for her child, and her determination to uncover the truth, plays out very well in these pages. While there were a few points that I found slightly implausible, on the whole I thought this was a very close and taut depiction of those first days of parenthood, and of the fears and nightmares that play on your mind. And it is certainly a book that will keep you turning the pages until the wee hours to finally uncover the truth for yourself.
Mine – Susi Fox
