‘Locust Summer’ by David Allan-Petale

Fiction – paperback; Fremantle Press; 240 pages; 2021.

Having the courage to forge your own path in life, free from parental expectations and obligations, is at the heart of this fine novel by David Allan-Petale.

Set in Septimus, a fictional town in Western Australia’s Wheatbelt, it tells the story of a young city journalist who returns home to the family farm to help bring in the final harvest before the property is sold.

As well as being a bittersweet homage to rural life and farming, it’s also an evocative story about loyalty, resilience, grief and illness.

Harvest calling

It’s 1986 and Rowan Brockman is a poorly paid journalist in Perth working the crime beat under Holt, a gruff but experienced editor. It’s the kind of city job Rowan’s always wanted, although he grew up in the country — “up the Mid West” — on a wheat farm, and there was an expectation he might stay on to run it with his elder brother, Albert.

But Albert is dead, thanks to a horrific mining accident, and the “spare” to the “heir” is not interested in pursuing this kind of life. The result is that there’s an unspoken rift within the family because Rowan’s choice to forgo a life on the land puts the future of the property at risk.

Every year when Rowan’s mum calls and asks him to help with the harvest, there’s always an excuse not to go, but this year is different: Rowan’s dad has dementia and can no longer work. Once the final harvest is finished, the house will be packed up and the land sold to a university for agricultural research purposes. There’s no alternative other than to say “yes” and ask Holt for the time off work to do it.

Mum had a workforce for the fields. Contracts for shipments. Buyers lined up for the grain. Why did I need to come? If she was serious about selling, then movers could pack the house. She already took care of Dad and refused all help.
“Rowan, will you come?”
The sea breathed through the living room curtains. Rising light was bringing the promise of another hot day; hotter inland where desert winds trapped eddies of heat over the paddocks of wheat ready for threshing.
“I’ll see what I can do,” I said, and Mum breathed a sigh of relief.

Country life

In Septimus, on the farm, Rowan falls back into the rhythms of country life.

As well as numerous riotous booze-fuelled evenings in the pub and an attempt to rekindle an old romance with Alison, his ex-girlfriend, Rowan gets his soft city hands dirty under the instruction of loyal farmhand Sterlo, who has worked for the family for years. Rowan is the square peg in the round hole, immensely aware he’s not cut out for this kind of work, but doing what he can to fit in. But it’s tough and he makes mistakes.

A lot happens in three short weeks as pressure to get the harvest finished before the weather changes and wheat prices drop continues to mount. There are added complications: day-long harvest bans because of the risk of bushfire; a pair of farm dogs (brilliantly named Bradman and Lillee) are euthanised after they go on a sheep-killing spree; an unplanned drive across a vast salt plain goes disastrously wrong; and Rowan’s father sparks a community-wide search when he disappears one afternoon.

Allan-Petale captures not just the atmosphere of a baking hot summer, the wide open spaces of the Wheatbelt and the time-worn routine of harvest work, but the sense of community spirit — and gossip — which will be familiar to anyone who’s grown up in these kinds of rural locales known the world over.

There’s a lot to admire in this captivating novel. As a story about a man making peace with his decisions, it’s also a touching examination of parental love and the possibility of fresh starts. The mother-son relationship is particularly well done.

Unsurprisingly, the manuscript for Locust Summer was shortlisted for the Australian/Vogel Literary Award in 2017; the book was shortlisted for the WA Premier’s Book Awards in 2021; and it was longlisted for the ALS Gold Medal in 2022.

If you liked this, you might also like:

‘Solace’ by Belinda McKeon: A doctoral student in Dublin struggles to reconcile his city life with the obligation he feels towards helping his father run the family farm.

This is my 18th book for #20BooksOfSummer 2023. I bought it in mid-2021, not long after I read Lisa’s review at ANZLitLovers. Since then, the author has become my colleague: we both work for the same organisation here in Perth and, after a recent restructure, are now sitting on the same team! I’d like to stress this hasn’t affected my opinion of the book; I just wouldn’t have bothered reviewing it if I hadn’t liked it.

This book also qualifies for my #FocusOnWesternAustralianWriters. You can find out more about this reading project, along with a list of Western Australian books already reviewed on the site, here.