M Kelly

Edge of Madness M Kelly

It is July 2045 when Mary-Jane Anderson (Marj) is born at her family's farm in Kellaberrin in Western Australia. A war with China and climate change has transformed not just the world, but also life on the farm. Still, Marj knows she is loved. But everything is about to change for her when she is orphaned at age eight and sent to live with her great aunt. While living with her aunt for several years, Marj sadly never feels at home. When she becomes pregnant and must live with the baby's father, her existence increasingly becomes unhappy. Lacking maternal feelings for her baby, Kylie, Marj considers her daughter as the cause of her problems. While feeling restricted by the norms of the time and the invasion of Social Services, Marj does her best to carry on despite the fact that it seems her life is always one step away from chaos as she travels across Australia. It is not until her path leads her into a mental health clinic in Dubbo that Marj learns a name for her condition and how to avoid the triggers that set it off. Edge of Madness is the poignant Australian tale of one woman's coming-of-age journey and beyond as her mental health deteriorates and she struggles to know why.