A Scarab Where the Heart Should Be- Marieke Bigg

'Maybe it was the sense that the poles of her world had lost their charge. The poles imposing order, dividing sense from nonsense, reality from unreality, love from hate, Mark from Clarissa. That they were all falsely opposed repetitions of the same delusion. That the house she lived in was just an optical illusion in the light of an undifferentiated unknown.'

Jacky 'The Beetle' McKenzie is, if you ask her, the most sensible and rational person in the world.

Unfortunately, her ordinary and the rest of the world's ordinary don't mix. To the rest of the world, she is belligerent, weird, obsessive, angry and volatile. Always, in the background, husband Mark and girlfriend Clarissa have one eye on each other, both asking the same question - which of them will she push too far first? Which of them will abandon her, and which will be left to pick up the pieces?

A Scarab Where the Heart Should Be invites us into the mind of one of the world's few true individuals as she embarks on her quest to streamline her life into the most perfect version it can be. Part visionary architect, part whirlwind of furious artistic chaos, but always, unwaveringly, searingly true to herself, this is a case study on what happens when obstinate obsession comes up against an unyielding society.

“A fascinating character study of a complex and reactive intellect; a timely conversation about how we operate in the world and what it means to be better.” Heather Parry, author of Orpheus Builds A Girl

“The writing is so sharp and precise, it fizzes and crackles with possibility. A Scarab Where The Heart Should Be is an extraordinary novel that captures the fervid intersection of one human heart as it crashes beautifully into others. It left me breathless with wonder.”Lee Rourke, author of The Canal