Mark Smith is the award winning author of the Winter Trilogy of novels. In these books Mark established himself as a writer of exciting and insightful young adult fiction. The collection spans a post apocalyptic Australian coastline. Finn must continue surviving after the breakdown of society following a devastating virus… and ok, this isn’t a discussion about The Road to Winter and it’s follow ups but you can already see that Mark Smith has his eye on a far too close for comfort tale..

Mark’s new novel is If Not Us and it follows in the Winter Trilogy’s footsteps of smart storytelling focussed on the resourcefulness of his young protagonists and the sort of hope we can place in future generations.

The beautiful coastal town of Shelbourne is full of contradictions.

For seventeen year old Hesse it’s the only home he knows. Hesse lives for the waves that break off the myriad banks and reefs along the coast. Hesse works at the local surf shop and doesn’t need much else.

But just outside the town is the Hadron open cut mine and power station. Hadron employs most of the town and they fund all the local sports teams and the surf club.

Hesse hadn’t given much thought to the power station and what it’s puting into the air. His mum’s a nurse and she knows that there’s more than the usual amount of respiratory disease in the local area. Imogen’s also a part of the local climate action group and Hesse is about to learn first hand the dangers to his beloved coast.

The first thing If Not Us hits you with is the small town vibe. Hesse biking to the beach and back is all I needed to feel the sand between my toes and know that this is one of those special places. Through Hesse’s naive perspective we almost come to believe that life could be a little bit of work and lots of waves.

When Hesse lines up that first wave you could just imagine one clean ride straight in to the beach. That’s until a local drops in on him and knocks him out for his trouble. The peace of the ocean can’t account for human damage and Hesse knows if he wants something he has to fight for it.

If Not Us works to frame the fight between the locals employed by the mine and the environmental group as something more than simply bad vs good. Hesse is friends with kids whose parents work at the mine. Everyone in town is touched in some way by the prosperity the mine’s employment brings.

The story doesn’t try to save the world, so much as look at how individuals can act and how those actions resonate locally and globally.

When Hesse meets the new exchange student Fenna he starts to see what is happening in his town from a bigger perspective. He knows he’s just one kid, but Fenna shows him how kids across the world are doing big things.

Mark’s writing is fast and punchy (really punchy - surfing is dangerous) He weaves his tale around just a few short weeks and opens up a world that will be familiar to most Australians. His setting and its inhabitants remind us that this problem is both simple and complicated; we know what we have to do to reduce emissions but if we don’t do it together people get left behind. If Not Us shows us that if no one is going to lead the way there’s an incredible group of young leaders who aren’t going to wait to be invited…