New Animal (hardback)

Amelia is no stranger to sex and death. Her job in her family's funeral parlour, doing make-up on the dead, might be unusual, but she's good at it. Life and warmth comes from the men she meets online - combining with someone else's body at night in order to become something else, at least for a while. But when a sudden loss severs her ties with someone she loves, Amelia sets off on a seventy-two-hour mission to outrun her grief - skipping out on the funeral, running away to stay with her father in Tasmania and experimenting on the local BDSM scene. There she learns more about sex, death, grief, and the different ways pain works its way through the body. It takes two fathers, a bruising encounter with a stranger and recognition of her own body's limits to bring Amelia back to herself. Deadpan, wise and heartbreakingly funny, Ella Baxter's New Animal is a stunning debut.