AustLit

'‘We have this idea we can live anywhere, that we make a choice, but it’s not true. There are places that are for you and places that aren’t. You can tell which is which if you’re prepared to listen.’'

'Tensions have been slowly building in the old farming district of Winderran. Its rich landscape has attracted a new wave of urban tree-changers and wealthy developers. But traditional loyalties and values are pushed to the brink with the announcement of a controversial dam project. Locals Eugenie and Guy are forced to choose sides, while newcomer Nick discovers there are more sinister forces at work. The personal and the political soon collide in ways that will change their fates and determine the future of the town.

'In Hinterland, Steven Lang has created a gripping novel that captures contemporary Australia in all of its natural beauty and conflicting ambitions.' (Publication summary)

'In 1842 the Crown Commissioner for Lands, Stephen Simpson, along with a Lutheran priest, Christoph Eipper, set out from Moreton Bay with the intention of finding a site for a new Aboriginal settlement in the Larger Bunya Country, now Kenilworth. They were accompanied on their journey by twelve soldiers, a team of bullocks and a dray, as well as the two escaped convicts, Bracewell and Davis, both of whom had lived for an extended period amongst the natives. 150 years later Steven Lang followed their route from the source of the Mary River to where it joins the sea. In A Strong Brown God Lang marries his story with that of the earlier men, both Aboriginal and White, weaving a picture of the Mary Valley as it was then, and as it is now, a very personal portrait that becomes a paean for the river and its importance.

'In this beautifully illustrated book Lang gives an account of his journey down the Mary River, weaving his own story with that of the original inhabitants and the first white settlers.' (From the publisher's website.)

'For a while Lawrence Martin had everything. He was the keyboard player in a successful rock band; he had money, his choice of women. It was all a long way from the British boarding school where he met Roly, the charismatic front man who lured him to Australia in the first place, and with whom he shared the song-writing. Only after it all went wrong did Lawrence learn they'd been sharing other things as well.

'Two decades on, living in the highlands of Scotland, he's again confronted with those turbulent years, and with the accident that changed everything.,.' (From the publisher's website.)

'When Kelvin returns to his childhood home on the southern coast of New South Wales, he discovers the town is a haven for people like him who are on the run from their pasts. He meets Jessica, a lawyer who has escaped the city, and Carl, an enigmatic American farmer. Both are pursuing new lives and causes inspired by the extraordinary landscape around them. But Kelvin begins to see the darker side of the environmental debate when he becomes drawn into a community of anti-logging activists. As his relationship with Jessica intensifies and implodes, it provokes Kelvin to make a decision with devastating consequences for all of them. No-one is quite who they seem as, deep in these southern forests, the story builds to a dramatic climax.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.