The Significance of Swans

In post-apocalyptic Wales, Aeronwy confronts a violent captor while striving to protect swans she believes are key to survival.

Novella set in a dystopian, post-apocalyptic Wales a few years into the future. Aeronwy, a very ordinary middle-aged woman, finds herself alone in the world after a series of sinister ‘removals’, where – one by one – people completely disappear in their sleep. Left completely alone with no electricity, media, retail or way of knowing if anyone might remain elsewhere, she learns to survive by foraging, growing and taking food from abandoned houses and shops. Eventually she decides to make the long walk back to her family farm in west Wales, in search of the only other person she thinks may have survived: her brother. On arriving, she discovers scenes of destruction and carnage and becomes the captive of a violent stranger, Blake, who has taken up residence at the farm and whom she suspects of having murdered her brother. Aeronwy believes that swans hold the key to the future, but Blake is intent on killing them all. Initially, her instinct is to escape his clutches but her purpose becomes clear to her: she must defend the swans and stand up to Blake, whatever the cost, even if that involves murder.