When Kelvin arrives in a small town in New South Wales, he realises he has been here before. It is where he spent his early childhood. Now in his twenties, he moves in to a commune to find that they are fighting for the forest to be saved. What they perceive as being an act of anarchy, turns into a night of terror and death. None of the protagonists are who they seem to be. Kelvin fights for survival and the love that he has sort for all his life. ( )

I am on a roll, as they say. My last three books have all been great reading, and interesting to me is that all three – The Custodians; Haxby’s Circus and now An Accidental Terrorist are from the backlist. In a way it should not be surprising that they are all beaut books because I tend to buy only books that come well-recommended, but still, the contrast between these deeply satisfying books and some more recent publications is intriguing. Lately I have been reading blurbs and publicity materials and booksellers’ catalogues and prize shortlists – and reviews of the same titles – and finding myself not very interested. At this rate the Miles Franklin longlist will come out – and I won’t have read much of it. Oh well…

The reason why I hunted out my copy of An Accidental Terrorist is that in a little while Steven Lang has a new book out called Hinterland. It’s been a long wait between novels from this fine Australian author, but lucky me, I have a copy though I am not allowed to tell you about it yet because it’s still under embargo. I really liked Lang’s 88 Lines about 44 Women which was shortlisted amongst some very distinguished company for the 2010 Qld Premier’s Literary Award for Fiction (Brian Castro, Peter Carey, Alex Miller and J.M. Coetzee) and the 2010 NSW Premier’s Prize for Fiction (J.M. Coetzee (again), David Malouf, Richard Flanagan and Cate Kennedy). Somehow *smacks forehead* I had let Lang’s debut novel slip to the back of the TBR…

An Accidental Terrorist is good, very good indeed, as the judges obviously agreed when it won the 2004 Queensland Premier’s Literary Awards for the Best Emerging Author. It tells the story of a lost soul called Kelvin who gets mixed up in eco-terrorism, a term I only use to distinguish it from violent religious terrorism, with which we are now only too familiar. I would call Kelvin and his ilk activists, because what they do is not intended to cause terror to anybody but to be an economic irritant. And as it turns out, it’s the activists who end up being terrified because they fear violent retaliation from the workers in the logging industry.

To read the rest of my review please visit https://anzlitlovers.com/2017/04/29/an-accidental-terrorist-by-steven-lang/ ( )

A novel set in the rural south east forests of New South Wales. I especially enjoyed the familiar settings with descriptions of my local town. Kelvin is a young drifter who gets involved with some activists who are opposed to logging activities. His relationship with a young woman and her neighbour who has a secret past make for a thrilling read. No one is who they seem which makes this a page turner where I read into the early hours to reach the tragic climax.
I would definitely read more from this author and Lang's most recent novel 88 Lines About 44 Women has recently been shortlisted for the NSW Premiers Literary Award for fiction. ( )

I really loved this book. I had just read Murray Ball's "Eucalyptus" which won the Mile Franklin and which I hated and this was such a breath of fresh air. OK, it was't trying to be the kind of 'art' that Eucalyptus was. The characters however are extremely engaging, their motivations intriguing and wholly believable and their fates compelling. The action is exciting and makes for a great thriller. The dialogue works well. But most of all the whole thing is somehow entirely identifiable from life, even though the action is not. That is to say, the people are people you know, their trials and feelings and torments are ones you have experienced or witnessed. The place, if you have ever spent time in rural south eastern Australia, is a place you have been and driven and picnicked/fished/camped/logged/protested/made love/got lost/got drunk/etc in yourself.