Description: In July 2014, on a lonely road at twilight outside Croppa Creek, New South Wales, 80-year-old farmer Ian Turnbull took out a .22 and shot environmental officer Glen Turner in the back.On one side, a man hoping to secure his family's wealth and future by farming the richest agricultural soil in the country. On the other side, the object of his obsession - the government employee trying his best to apply environmental laws.The brutal killing of Glen Turner splits open the story of our place on this land. Is our time on this soil a tale of tragedy or triumph - are we reaping what we've sown? Do we owe protection to the land, or does it owe us a living? And what happens when, in pursuit of an inheritance for his family, a man creates terrible consequences?Kate Holden brings her discerning eye to a gripping tale of law, land and entitlement.'A virtuosic work of narrative non-fiction, a book that makes space for the complexity, contradictions and ugliness of the settlement of Australia ...The Winter Road makes a vital contribution to the public sphere.' Judges' comments, 2022 NSW Premier's Literary Awards.
Brief description: Kate Holden is an award-winning author of two highly praised memoirs, In My Skin and The Romantic, and a regular contributor to The Saturday Paper, The Monthly and The Age.
Review Quotes: 'An incredible writer.' -Books+Publishing
'This is essential reading by one of Australia's finest nonfiction writers.' -Readings 'In prose as rich as the landscape it describes, Holden's book digs down into history, and sets it within the broader story of modern Australia's relationship to the land ... Holden is an excellent writer and weaves different elements together beautifully, moving from the Turner-Turnbull story to its historical and philosophical context with intelligence and panache. Above all, The Winter Road is a rebuke to the classical liberalism at the heart of societies such as our own.' -The Australian 'Holden relates with empathy and intelligence a dramatic and complex story, which has deep links to the past and profound implications for the future ... The genius of the book, which, as a model of reconstructive journalism places Holden alongside Chloe Hooper and Anna Krien, lies in Holden's ability to apply her intense intellectuality to a topic that, in the most literal of senses, is so down to earth.' -The Saturday Paper 'Vividly written and meticulously researched' -Tasmanian Times