Welcome to my website! I write fiction, and my latest novel is Bridge 108

In 2018, my novel Dreams Before the Start of Time won the Arthur C. Clarke Award.

Winner of the Arthur C. Clarke Award 2018

Through a series of interconnected vignettes that spans five generations and three continents, this emotionally taut story explores the anxieties that arise when the science of fertility claims to deliver all the answers.

“Classic novel exploring the limits of pregnancy” — The Guardian

Latest release (2020)

A dystopian novel set in the climate-ravaged Europe of A Calculated Life. Told through multiple voices against the backdrop of a haunting and frighteningly believable future, Bridge 108 charts the passage of a young boy into adulthood amid oppressive circumstances that are increasingly relevant to our present day.

“Charnock tells her story through the lives of ordinary people caught up in situations beyond their control, and Bridge 108 is all the more powerful for that.” — The Guardian

Shortlisted for Philip K. Dick Award and Kitschies Golden Tentacle 2013

A dystopian vision of corporate life later in the 21st century when big business and state institutions are thriving thanks to a compliant, stratified and segregated workforce. Hyper-intelligent professionals live in affluence within the metropolis while menials live out in the subsidized, but spartan, enclaves.

“Charnock has fascinating, complex things to say about work, sex, family and hope (and that pretty much covers it, don’t you think?).” — Adam Roberts, author of Jack Glass.

The Guardian’s Best SFF Books of 2015:

Sleeping Embers of an Ordinary Mind (47North) is an expert braiding together of past, present and future that puts a 15th-century Italian female artist centre stage to say penetrating things about womanhood, creativity and history.” — The Guardian

A skillfully executed multigenerational saga that explores a potential future driven by rapid development of reproductive technologies…A story that feels personal and intimate.

Charnock explores what the family of the future will look like, as well as how society and pregnancy will change. Deceptively intimate, this is big-idea SF reminiscent of the societal changes mapped across generational sagas like Foundation or the Mars trilogy.

Charnock is clearly a gifted and sensitive author of acute intelligence, writing science fiction of a kind – quiet, intense, thoughtful – we could do with more of.

“Charnock tells her story through the lives of ordinary people caught up in situations beyond their control, and Bridge 108 is all the more powerful for that.”

“Readers who enjoy coming-of-age stories with hopeful messages will be gratified by this topical tale of human resourcefulness in the face of climate disaster.”

“Readers who enjoy coming-of-age stories with hopeful messages will be gratified by this topical tale of human resourcefulness in the face of climate disaster.”

“The novel’s near-future setting feels grimy, sweltering and lived-in. It’s a commanding, if demanding, read.”