A Scarab Where the Heart Should Be

Marieke Bigg

Dead Ink

Paperback

230pp

ISBN:

Fiction

Publication date: 12 September 2024

Rights: UK & Commonwealth

£10.99

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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.

Marieke Bigg

Dr Marieke Bigg holds a PhD in sociology from the University of Cambridge. Her work focused on the role of biological models and biologists in public deliberations on biotechnology and reproductive medicine. She also writes fiction that deals with the intersection of art and the female body.