Redheads - Softcover

Sochaczewski, Paul Spencer

2.4

10 ratings by Goodreads

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0958744890 ISBN 13: 9780958744898

Publisher: Sid Harta Publishers, 2000

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In the middle of a Borneo rainforest a band of near-naked Penan, 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.

How can the world's oldest forest be saved? Who has the answer? The scientist who studies orangutans? The marketing experts of the world's largest nature conservation group? The earnest monkey-wrenchers? Or are they all just kidding themselves that they can make a difference?

At the heart of Redheads fictional action lies the very real problem of rainforest destruction and the philosophical question of where the real boundaries lie between apes and humans. Could sex be an effective instrument of communication between the two? And just what is it about red silk underwear, anyway?

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About the Author:

Paul Spencer Sochaczewski

Paul Spencer Sochaczewski has spent more than 30 years on the conservation front lines. Born in Brooklyn, New York, raised in northern New Jersey, graduated from George Washington University, he served in the Peace Corps for two years in remote parts of Sarawak, a Malaysian state on the island of Borneo, and was creative director of J. Walter Thompson advertising affiliates in Singapore and Indonesia for another ten. He ran World Wildlife Fund International’s global public awareness campaigns to protect tropical rainforests and biodiversity and is now a consultant for IUCN-the World Conservation Union and the International Osteoporosis Foundation. While on sabbatical in Hawaii in 1992, Paul changed his family name from Wachtel to the original vowel-challenged name of his Polish-born father. He is co-author, with Jeff McNeely, of Soul of the Tiger: Searching for Nature’s Answers in Southeast Asia (Doubleday, Paragon, Oxford University Press, University of Hawaii Press, Shinkosha) and EcoBluff Your Way to Instant Environmental Credibility (Bonus Books). Lyall Watson, author of Supernature, said Soul of the Tiger is 'a timely, revealing, delightful, and yet totally unsentimental look at the relationship between our own and other species which must lie at the heart of all successful conservation.

'He has written more than 500 by-lined articles for the International Herald Tribune, Wall Street Journal, Geographical, International Wildlife, BBC Wildlife, Earth Times, E: The Environmental Magazine, GQ Active and many other publications, and is on the editorial advisory board of the Indonesian Heritage Encyclopedia and the Encyclopedia of Malaysia (Archipelago Press). He lives in a small village in Switzerland.

Review:

"... Sochaczewski's classic novel Redheads tells of the cultural genocide of Borneo's Penan people (and the destruction of the rainforests on which they rely) with wit, elegance, and insight. If you care about our natural world and the indigenous people who are being denied a choice in how and where they live, then read this tale. It's fiction, but the issues it exposes are, tragically, all too real."
--Robin Hanbury-Tenison, explorer and author of Mulu: The Rainforest, The Oxford Book of Exploration, and The Great Explorers

"Redheads is a roaring tale of tropical suspense, an eco-thriller that is witty and smart and altogether a wonderful treat. It is the perfect example of a new genre, an eco-thriller so suspenseful that you learn about this strange world while sitting on the edge of your seat."
--Thomas Bass, author of The Spy Who Loved Us, Vietnamerica, and The Predictors

"An absorbing story, reminiscent of the social commentary of Somerset Maugham and Evelyn Waugh. Everyone working in conservation should read it and heed it."
--Jim Thorsell, Ph.D., senior advisor, World Heritage, IUCN

"Redheads is a terrific book about apes and people, do-gooders and do-baddders, science and superstition, ecology and psychology, nature and nurture, and how we all fit together in this old world."
--Mark Olshaker, author of The Edge; co-author of Mindhunter

"A ribald, engrossing novel with a deeper message regarding the clash of cultures and our relation to the environment."
--Edwin Bernbaum, author of Sacred Mountains of the World and The Way to Shambhala

"A great read. Redheads accurately and entertainingly captures the cynical reality of today's conservation conflicts. This entertaining book is a must for anyone interested in learning how the global environment movement really works."
--Daniel Navid, director, Environmental Law Training Program of the United Nations

"Redheads pits the ideals of science and biodiversity conservation against the real world of nasty politics, reductionist thinking, and economic 'imperatives.' The engaging spell of the author weaves the impression that indigenous peoples and other primate inhabitants of the forest are the only hope we have left of saving the tropical ecosystems of the world."
--Darrel Addison Posey, Oxford Centre for the Environment, Ethics and Society

"Fast, rollicking ... pace is so brisk it easily fought off drowsiness on the flight from Seoul to Jakarta. An eco-thriller of the best kind, page-turning plot, and piquant--often hilarious character sketches [about] the jungled politics of deforestation. It is a complicated, messy plot equally in the novel and in real life; in both there are few untainted motives and very little hope."
--Dana De Zoysa, Curled Up with a Good Book

"This rambunctious romp through the Borneo jungles is both fun and deceptively insightful. If this is how the world really works in the realm of nature protection, then where do we go from here? The story reveals important realities about the way things can be in the hurley-burley world of nature protection and environmentalism. Noble-intentioned jet-setting environmentalists: Take Heed!"
--Sir Russell Betts, Ph.D., former director of WWF Indonesian program

"There are few global challenges more important than saving the environment, and Paul Sochaczewski has found a way to reinvigorate the movement through an engaging novel. Who doesn't love those hyper, cute orangutans of the diminishing rainforests of Southeast Asia? Who wants to live in a world without redheads? I don't."
--John Burdett, author of Bangkok Asset

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