Romy Ash's second novel, Mantle, is a stunning return to fiction thirteen years after her celebrated debut, Floundering. This new work is a bizarre, evocative, and exhilarating vision of the near future, merging science with the surreal. Ash's talent, recognized early in her career when she was shortlisted for the Miles Franklin Literary Award, has only deepened with time, and Mantle is a testament to her growth as a writer.
A Complex Novel of Ideas
Mantle is set on the coast of south-eastern Tasmania, where fifty-year-old Ursula arrives to care for her dying mother, Delores, at her clifftop house overlooking the D'Entrecasteaux Channel. Delores had retreated to a simple hippy life after the traumatic death of her other daughter and husband, but now a mysterious growth in her lungs proves incurable. Ursula, a stratigrapher who reads the planet's history in layers of rock and fossils, is haunted by the thought that humanity is leaving behind a 'plastics layer'. As Delores dies, Ursula develops a bumpy rash that spreads across her skin, and others in the coastal community are similarly affected. In a replay of the COVID-19 pandemic, state borders close, supermarkets empty, and Ursula finds herself isolated in her mother's house, with a pantry well stocked since the millennium-bug panic.
Surreal and Sensual Storytelling
Ash excels at sketching a small cast of believably quirky characters. The lonely old drunk Ernie, a fisherman trying to regenerate kelp forests, is a standout. But the most striking aspect of Mantle is Ash's sensual prose about damp landscapes and warm domesticity. Ursula recalls 'quolls splattered across the road in their spotty pyjamas' and sees rocks 'laminated, like croissant pastry'. The novel becomes increasingly strange as the rash erupts into clumps of mushrooms, both alarming and beautiful. Ursula learns that fungi are proliferating in the warming atmosphere, their spores in the air and mycelium rooted in our bodies. They are harbingers of decay and perhaps a post-Anthropocene epoch.
Ursula is obsessed with food, endlessly hungry as she feeds her fungi. She uses her culinary skills to roast a chicken, brew coffee, and prepare mussels and omelettes, all described in mouthwatering detail. Cooking becomes an act of survival and love. Equally evocative are scenes where Ursula overcomes her aversion to swimming, absorbing the vibrancy of kelp, coral, and sea dragons. 'Little silver fish swim around my hands; they're tiny, scraps of sparkle,' she observes.
Metaphor and Meaning
Ash works powerfully at the level of metaphor. The title Mantle refers both to a protective covering and the invisible layer of the Earth between crust and core. Ursula's grief reaches into long-buried memories and intensifies her responses to environmental distress. Perimenopause gives her a late flare of lust and courage. Flashes of wonder break through the gloom, maintaining a rhythm of tension and relief. The novel is divided into sections titled Civil, Nautical, and Astronomical, after the phases of twilight that precede complete darkness. The short final section, Night, is a tour de force.
Disturbing as science and exhilarating as art, Mantle creates a bizarre, brilliant vision of the near future. The image of Ursula and her mushrooms will linger long after reading. Mantle by Romy Ash is published on 28 April by Ultimo Press.
