AustLit

'I'm on a bus headed for the DMZ. demilitarised zone. The Cold-War buffer between North and South Korea. It's four kilometres wide and has two things in abundance: military hardware and unmolested wildlife. Or somewhat unmolested wildlife. I once met a writer named Kim Young-ha who grew up just south of the DMZ. He'd be drifting off to sleep and in the stillness, every now and then, he'd hear this whumpf. A deer hitting a landmine. Actually, three things flourish in the DMZ. Military hardware, wildlife, and tourists. I'm here for work, minding a bunch of touring writers, and it's our day off. On an idle whim we go to a low-ceilinged cubicle in a plush Seoul hotel where we flash our passports and for $75 each are driven to the no-man's land between two warring nations. Wearing visitor's badges. What kind of batshit scheme is this? There are two million soldiers along the border with just a rusty ceasefire keeping them apart. South Korea's proud and stubborn. North Korea is demonstrably unstable, like my best friend in high school who collected knives and lived with his racist foster grandmother and burgled houses on his lunch break. The two Koreas have firefights on a semi-regular basis. Tourist heaven. Bus 'em in.'  (Publication abstract)

'Data theft, internet memes, advertising, terrorism, indigenous sovereignty, drone warfare, opium addiction, syphilis, the moon landing, mining, oil slicks, climate change, giant octopuses: nothing is spared in this collection. Nic Low's stories go beyond satire, aiming for the dark heart of our collective obsession with technology, power and image.

'Set variously in London, an Indian village, remote Mongolia, the West Australian outback and mountainous New Zealand, these are prescient visions of the future and outlandish reimaginings of the past. Arms Race is an arresting debut from a fierce, playful new voice in Australian writing.' (Publication summary)