Moon Sugar

Mila can't shake her grief for the life she thought she'd have. She's broke, childless, and single. But her developing relationship with Josh, a 'sugar baby', opens her eyes to new possibilities.

Then Josh goes missing on a trip to Europe a presumed suicide. Mila, and Josh's best friend Kyle, are devastated, yet they suspect something is amiss. Together, they feel compelled to trace Josh's steps across Budapest, Prague and Berlin, seeking clues in his last posts online.

Yet is there one mysterious factor Mila hasn't considered?

Is running toward danger the only way for Mila to meet her true capacity? Or will it mean yet more loss?

This genre-defying stunner asks how we might make the most of our power in the face of fear, loss, and the unknown. It celebrates our ability, despite great challenges, to be intimate with others and with the world.

'Sexy and smart and hyper-colour and haunted, in the most beautiful way. As I read Moon Sugar, memories and feelings from my own life and the characters' lives kept surfacing, and then sinking again. Using magic as a form of truth, Meyer has written a story that is at once pure, dark and startling as life itself.' Laura McPhee-Browne, author of Cherry Beach

'Moon Sugar evokes a world that is strangely ours and recognisably something else. A wild, genre-bending ride, irradiated by grief.' Miles Allinson, author of In Moonland

Mila-40, single, childless-is used to attending to the needs and wants of others. Her own wants, particularly her sexual desires, have always come second. Kyle, a tentative man in his mid-20s, is always the sidekick, never the hero. What connects these two is a man named Josh, Kyle's housemate and Mila's sugar baby. It is the sudden disappearance of Josh while holidaying in Berlin that propels Moon Sugar and throws Mila and Kyle into a world of experimentation and cosmic potential. The pair travel to Europe to pick up the trail of their friend. They follow Josh's movements through hostels and clubs, as well as online, hacking his accounts to sift through the digital detritus for clues. The tension goes up a notch in the second half of the novel when something strange begins to change in Mila. Her world starts to shift and take on a hyperreal quality. Meanwhile, interspersed throughout the primary narrative is the story of an astronaut and the mysterious substance he brought back from space. Reminiscent of Steven Amsterdam's What the Family Needed, this book is perfect for readers seeking a blend of literary fiction, mystery and sci-fi. Angela Meyer writes with a disarming tenderness and curiosity, and while Moon Sugar tackles some big issues-climate change, patriarchal capitalism, sexual politics-it retains a sense of intimacy that is beautiful and haunting. Coco McGrath is a freelance editor and former bookseller.

Angela Meyer (she/her) is an award-winning writer and editor. Her debut novel, A Superior Spectre (Ventura/Saraband), was shortlisted for an Aurealis Award, the MUD Literary Prize, an Australian Book Industry Award, the Readings Prize for New Australian Writing and a Saltire Literary Society Award (Scotland). She is also the author of a novella, Joan Smokes, which won the inaugural Mslexia Novella Award (UK), and a book of flash fiction, Captives. Her work has been widely published in magazines, journals and newspapers, including Island, The Big Issue, Best Australian Stories and Kill Your Darlings. She has worked in bookstores, as a book reviewer, in a whisky bar, as a commissioning editor and publisher, a teacher of writing and publishing, and a freelance editor and consultant. She grew up in Northern NSW and lives in Melbourne, Australia.

Mila can't shake her grief for the life she thought she'd have. She's broke, childless, and single. But her developing relationship with Josh, a 'sugar baby', opens her eyes to new possibilities. Then Josh goes missing on a trip to Europe - a presumed suicide. Mila, and Josh's best friend Kyle, are devastated, yet they suspect something is amiss. Together, they feel compelled to trace Josh's steps across Budapest, Prague and Berlin, seeking clues in his last posts online. Yet is there one mysterious factor Mila hasn't considered? Is running toward danger the only way for Mila to meet her true capacity? Or will it mean yet more loss? This genre-defying stunner asks how we might make the most of our power in the face of fear, loss, and the unknown. It celebrates our ability, despite great challenges, to be intimate with others and with the world. 'Sexy and smart and hyper-colour and haunted, in the most beautiful way. As I read Moon Sugar, memories and feelings from my own life and the characters' lives kept surfacing, and then sinking again. Using magic as a form of truth, Meyer has written a story that is at once pure, dark and startling as life itself.' - Laura McPhee-Browne, author of Cherry Beach ' Moon Sugar evokes a world that is strangely ours and recognisably something else. A wild, genre-bending ride, irradiated by grief.' - Miles Allinson, author of In Moonland

This item is eligible for free returns within 30 days of delivery. See our returns policy for further details.