Redheads: A Comic Eco-Thriller Set in Borneo

The30-year conservationist and writer Paul Spencer Sochaczewski brings his rich experience and gifts to a smart and fascinating eco-thriller that smoothly blends philosophical explorations with wit, sexy humor, and heart-thumping action. The story is set in the world's oldest rainforest, home of tribal people (the Penan) of Borneo who for thousands of years have lived in physical and spiritual harmony with the ancient forests and its multitudinous life. (And according to the dust-jacket bio, it is a world well known to that the author who had spent years in the Borneo jungle as Peace Corp volunteer and World Wildlife Fund director.) But loggers armed with chainsaws and shotguns threaten to reduce this lush and final frontier to barren wastelands. That is, unless a band of quirky and desperate characters can prevent them. Like the rich rain forest fauna, the author casts a diverse and well-conceived band of characters into this engaging battle of eco-ideals, corporate greed and political corruption--rainforest natives turned eco-guerillas by an elusive but charismatic Robin Hood figure from Switzerland; a feisty and passionate primate specialist scrambling to complete her research on the mating patterns of orangutans while trying to barter time from government officials; a doctoral student who has developed sign language communication with orangutans in the hope of shedding light on the causes of autism in children; a government administrator who is bedfellow to loggers and conservationists alike; and, of course, the "redheads" of the title, those charming and magical creatures whose needs and desires blur the distinction between human and ape.This is a must read for anyone who cares about the natural world and our place in it.

I've always wondered how the environmental movement really works, and I know a lot more about now than I did before. In Redheads, Paul Sochaczewski does a great of being both informative and entertaining, and he tells a great story to boot. Redheads is well worth its modest cost, and the time invested in reading it is time very well spent.

Redheads is a timely book about urgent ecological issues. It's told in a palatable story form with characters who are drawn with a farcical spin, but whose ulterior (and not so ulterior) motives translate into pending global disaster. The stakes couldn't be higher. This clearly experienced and well-informed author has chosen fiction to expose the powerfully destructive forces involved in worldwide environmental politics. However, anyone who reads Redheads will sense the faultline of reality that underscores this pending ten point quake.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book - who can resist a jungle adventure featuring a cast of unforgettable and wacky characters! Yet the story is all the more memorable because it so effortlessly conveys the shady politics behind the ecological disaster threatening Sarawak and its people. It's not just a great read, it's a wake-up call to those (like me) who know little about conservation issues.

In the middle of a Borneo rainforest, a band of near-naked Penan aboriginals, encouraged by an equally clothes-challenged renegade Swiss shepherd, hesitantly blockade a logging truck, testing their commitment to protect their forest home. Nearby, an orangutan researcher is threatened with being thrown out of her study site unless she can reach a compromise with the powerful Minister of the Environment. Who has the answer to saving the world's oldest forest--the marketing experts of the world's largest nature conservation group or the earnest monkey-wrenchers? Though the exasperating and sometimes self-defeating politics of nature conservancy may sound like grim stuff, Sochaczewski's book is very far from grim. One reviewer went so far as to call it "a rollicking and often raunchy read." I myself was asked for a quote and gave the publisher this one: "Redheads does for the struggle to save the rain forests of Borneo what Catch 22 did for the struggle to stay alive in World War II." Overall, a delightful book in every way--and must reading for anyone who cares about the future of the world.