Wonders of a Godless World

Wonders of a Godless World is a 2009 novel by Andrew McGahan.^[1] Described as "a kind of modern fable" that "verges on fantasy", it won the 2010 Aurealis Award for best science fiction novel.^[2]

It follows the story of an orphan girl who is working in the wards of the insane and incapable, but the inhabitants are thrown into turmoil after a series of strange murders following the arrival of a new patient.^[3]

Wonders of a Godless World was first published in Australia in October 2009 by Allen & Unwin in trade paperback format.^[3] It was released in the United Kingdom in May 2010 by Blue Door.^[4] Wonders of a Godless World won the 2010 Aurealis Award for best science fiction novel.Ref name=sfadb />^[5]

Set on an unnamed island in the near present, it is told from the perspective of a simple young woman, an orphan, mute, reared in a mental hospital and an orderly there, who forms a bond with a mysterious coma patient, a man with telepathic powers who claims to be immortal...^[6]

Throughout the book the reader can never be sure that the mute orphan narrator is a reliable narrator. The possibility that her telepathic bond with the patient is in fact a figment of her imagination is always left open. So rather than science fiction, the book could instead be read as an insight into delusion.^[7]