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Steven Lang

Author of An accidental terrorist

7 Works 68 Members 7 Reviews

About the Author

Includes the name: Steven Lang

Works by Steven Lang

An accidental terrorist (2005) 33 copies
88 lines about 44 women (2009) 12 copies
Hinterland (2017) 9 copies
Midway 1 copy

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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.
 
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HelenBaker | 3 other reviews | Oct 11, 2019 |
Hinterland, Steven Lang’s third novel, is a very Australian story – a very Queensland story if it comes to that – but its themes are universal. All over the world people living in lovely places find themselves having to defend their patch against development. As in other places around the world, all around the Australian coastline, and in congenial inland places within commuting distance of the overcrowded cities, there are plans for apartments and housing developments, holiday and weekender accommodation, shopping centres, and posh new mansions for the multi-homed rich. That kind of development breeds infrastructure development: bigger roads, sewage and rubbish disposal systems, electricity and water supply. In Lang’s new novel set in the fictional town of Winderran, plans for a dam are ruffling feathers and not just because it would cut through some land that’s been restored from desertification.

The cast of characters includes tree-changers, blow-in greenies and people with long-established roots in the district. These characters are introduced by multiple narrators who all know each other with varying degrees of familiarity, each narration having its own distinctive voice. The story begins through Miles, the ageing doctor who’s taken to dealing with grief after the death of his wife, with alcohol. He knows everybody, from old Margaret Ewart living an independent life in dignified poverty, to Helen Lamprey, dying from cancer while her husband Guy, an author who’s lost his mojo, flirts with politics as a career alternative. Through Miles the reader sees that the town has a population of older residents augmented by the influx of wealthy retirees, and children. The generation in between has mostly fled, for brighter prospects elsewhere, though some are trickling in to service the needs of the growing population in places like the hospital and the medical centre. And – isolating themselves on the edge of town – there are also some creepy army veterans whose psychological damage distorts the ordinary humanity that most people share.

The second narrator, Dr Nick Lasker, has come to Winderran to escape his failed marriage, not deluding himself as to its cause. He’s an incorrigible womaniser who knows he should know better. Yet everywhere he goes, he’s sizing women up. In a bar where he’s hoping to meet up with an attractive nurse, he’s still eyeing off other women while he waits:


She stood up, almost colliding with a young man coming in the door. Nick watched as she wove her way back through the tables. A nice shape to her hips. Miles had said something to him one night in reference to women, how they no longer exerted power over him in the way they once had. Women, he’d said, had become just like other people now … he could relate to them based on who they were, on what they said or thought, as if they were nothing more than attractively shaped men. It wasn’t a concept Nick could even begin to embrace. (p.164)


To read the rest of my review please visit https://anzlitlovers.com/2017/07/13/hinterland-by-steven-lang/
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anzlitlovers | Jul 12, 2017 |
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/
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anzlitlovers | 3 other reviews | Apr 29, 2017 |
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.… (more)
2 vote
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jeniwren | 3 other reviews | May 16, 2010 |

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Works
7
Members
68
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Rating
3.9
Reviews
7
ISBNs
13

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