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Alastair Sarre's Prohibited Zone: A thriller in the desert

reviewed by Inga Simpson
 

Prohibited Zone’splot revolves around the Woomera Detention Centre, in the South Australian desert, which was closed in 2003. Australian asylum seeker and detention policy is, however, still very much up for public debate. Until now, this debate has largely taken place in the media, Parliament and the courtroom. Fiction can be a powerful tool for shifting hearts and minds and this novel does a good job of raising humanitarian issues while retaining its thriller pace.

Prohibited Zone is, as it promises, a thriller, but an intelligent one, with a good heart and solid female characters, which prevent it from becoming too blokey.

Steve West is a decent bloke with a rough exterior. A mining engineer and ex-AFL star legendary for taking the mark of the century, only to do his knee in, forcing an early retirement, is on his way to a dirty weekend in Adelaide with his married lover. In a bar scene channelling Wake in Fright, Steve escapes the frying pan only to run into fiery activist, Kara, and finds himself aiding and abetting runaway asylum seeker, Saira. Mr minimal commitment finds himself on the road and on the run, pursued by police, dubious agents, and a gang of reward-seeking rednecks.

Steve and Kara rub each other the wrong way from the start – their dialogue is good and sharp – but find themselves increasingly enmeshed as events unfold. But perhaps they rub each other the right way after all, which doesn’t particularly please Steve’s lover, Lucy.

The plot becomes more and more complicated, particularly once ASIO agents and the media get involved, and culminates in a dramatic scene in the desert, which I didn’t predict. The story is a muscular one, brutal even, and Steve cops a hiding; he’s that sort of guy, reminiscent of a Dashiel Hammett detective outlaw.

The desert landscape and Adelaide and surrounds are very present in the novel, capturing a great sense of distance and vastness (and harshness). This use of setting really grounds the story and echoes its political heart. These politics intrude a little at times, bordering on didactic: the risk in tackling a contemporary social issue in a novel. Overall, though, Sarre pulls it off; the issues are deserving of attention and provide an original basis for a thriller.

Prohibited Zone is Sarre’s first novel, and was shortlisted for the Adelaide Festival Award for Best Unpublished Novel. Wakefield Press is an independent publishing company based in Adelaide, and is to be commended for its commitment to encouraging South Australian authors in the current economic climate. Prohibited Zone is a solid debut novel, suggesting we may well hear more of Steve West’s adventures.

About the Author

Inga Simpson Inga Simpson is the author of Fatal Development, and her novel, Off the Grid, which won the 2009 QLD Premier’s Award for best emerging author. She is currently working on a book-length nature writing project, Notes from Olvar Wood.


 

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