Books
Book Review: Shadow in the Forest (2019)
Looking for a good novel to read while on holiday in a remote part of Tasmania? I’d recommend Shadow in the Forest!
Set in 1983, it follows the story of Evelyn Carter, an idealistic zoologist who travels to Tasmania to take part in an environment project. Alone in the wilderness, she discovers what she believes to be a Tasmanian Tiger. Is it actually a Tasmanian Tiger? Or is it a dog? A fantasy, even? It is intentionally unclear.
Evelyn is a very complex character. She is bad at communicating, her mental health suffers during long-term solitude, and she suffers from chronic headaches. While at the Walls of Jerusalem, she ponders her own insignificance in the grand scheme of things, ultimately experiencing a variety of different emotions. She also contemplates whether or not to continue her academic studies after the environment project is finished. She thinks about how to break up with her boyfriend.
Leigh does a very good job at describing what goes through Evelyn’s mind. He found it very difficult to express what he felt and imagined while writing Shadow in the Forest, however.
“It was so difficult that I turned at the time from prose to drama,” he explains.
He eventually got the job done, though.
The novel reads well, though it is written a very formal style. I think it would have read even better if the language was more casual. The descriptions of the various locations are very vivid and evocative, though.
Overall, Shadow in the Forest is a novel about ethical zoological and environmental issues. It also examines a mind descending into madness. It is a good novel to read while on holiday in a remote part of Tasmania.
Fun fact
Olegas Truchanas is mentioned in Shadow of the Forest.
A list of locations that feature in Shadow of the Forest
The Walls of Jerusalem National Park
About Leigh Swinbourne
Leigh Swinbourne is a Tasmanian author, dramatist, and playwright. He has had short stories and articles published in a variety of journals and anthologies. His play The Mark of Cain was shortlisted for the 2005 Patrick White Playwrights’ Award.
Leigh Swinbourne
He originally wrote Shadow in the Forest thirty years ago.
“I was living alone and dealing with a few mental problems,” he explains.
“I thought writing a fiction could be a good way to get some perspective on these. I changed myself into a woman so I could objectify the business. I also changed my obsessions to something neutral, an animal. The story took shape from there.”
Leigh travelled to Tasmania and spent a fortnight doing preparatory work at the Walls of Jerusalem. He then returned home to Sydney and wrote the novel in two months. He put it aside after trying unsuccessfully to get it published. When the Tasmanian Book Prizes launched a new prize for an unpublished manuscript in 2012, though, Leigh retrieved the novel from his bottom drawer, re-wrote it, and submitted it to be judged.
“It was shortlisted, so I again looked for a publisher and was successful,” he says.
Does Leigh believe Tasmanian Tigers still exist?
“After doing some research, I believe they unfortunately don’t,” he says.
“Interestingly, it seems there were Tigers in the Derwent Bridge area up until the fifties, well after they were declared extinct. People were shooting them and selling their skins. I guess if there had been a will, the species at that point might have been preserved. But that was a long time ago, and nothing except dodgy photos has surfaced in the decades since.”
Technical information
Shadow in the Forest, Ginninderra Press 2019, 183pp, ISBN 9781760417819, paperback.