Red Heart
Victor Kelleher

Penguin Books:
Viking 2001

224p pbk $18.95

ISBN: 0-670-89695-0

Nat, a 16 year old young man, lives on a farm with his parents and younger brother on the Murray River, just west of Mildura, in a post Greenhouse world. The Company, and their spokes-person Mr Craig, try to seize their home because of an unpaid loan, but Nat makes a deal with them that he will get the money to pay of the loan. Nat journey’s upriver to find his Uncle Jack, who rules the ‘Promised Land’ in the Darling River. While getting there he becomes companion with a couple of members of the Feral Nation.

This book is intended for a teenage audience, and is easily readable for most teens. It has a great story line, with believable characters and these interact with each other in a very different situation than today’s world.

Over all I rate this book as about 7 out of ten. It’s well suited for people aged 14 and above.

Nat, aged 16, Canberra, ACT

I usually find Victor Kelleher’s novels to be a little slow getting started, although once they get going they always please.  Red Heart would be an exception to this experience.  Within the first few pages the reader is taken into the future to an Australia that is suffering the effects of Global Warming.  The fast paced action of Red Heart takes Nat (the main character) in a journey to find his uncle, Jack Curtis, in the ‘Promised Land’.  To do this he needs to travel up the swollen and treacherous rivers that have taken over the land.  Nat has to fight renegades, bias and infectious diseases. Along the way Nat learns that his uncle and the Promised Land are not quite what he expected, and he finds friends in unexpected places.

Red Heart is a story about the human spirit and the choices people make.  It’s hard to put down and both boy and girls alike will be hooked on the story.  I would recommend it for age 12 and up.  Even teachers should read it!