The first novel by Michael Fellowes
Love develops between a Black and a deaf teenager, trapped alone on a secret Antarctic expedition after an ancient lethal infection escapes.
Do opposites attract?
Marvin is seventeen, Black and neurodiverse, from inner-city Manchester. He was bullied at school because he prefers classical music to rap, and reading to football.
Scarlet is white and eighteen. She became deaf from meningitis at her wealthy Brighton boarding school. She is grieving for her lost hearing and struggling to regain her self-esteem.
They win places on the Antarctica Science for All expedition to explore Lake Lovelace in remote West Antarctica. In this arduous environment they learn to support each other, moving from friendship to comfort and to love.
Then a solar flare destroys radio and satellite communications, leaving them alone and stuck in the icy wastes of Antarctica, the nearest human is over a thousand miles away.
And in the dark of the subglacial lake, three miles in the ice beneath their feet, what lies in wait?
A must-read that combines the apocalyptic peril of The Last of Us, the young romance between Sam of the Nightwatch and Gilly in Game of Thrones, the isolation of The Martian, and the Antarctic terror of The Thing.
- Content warning: depression, alcohol misuse, suicidal thoughts
- Longlisted for the Morley Prize
As Pete Kalu comments:
"In Scarlet and the White, Michael Fellowes takes readers from the grey streets of Manchester to the blinding ice of Antarctica in a thrilling, heartfelt adventure about courage, connection, and survival at the ends of the Earth."
Get your copy here
Scarlet and the White is available on Amazon in eBook and paperback formats.
Other publications
Warbaby - A short story by Michael Fellowes, was published in Manchester Speculative Fiction's Revolutions 2 anthology - available on Amazon in paperback and eBook/Kindle versions.