A Nasty Little War
By Michael Page
Published by Rigby Limited: Australia 1979 1st Edition
"Michael Page's A Nasty Little War (1979) is a sharp, unsettling piece of speculative fiction that imagines Australia caught up in a covert-to-overt campaign of political and military takeover by China. Told through the eyes of ordinary Australians — families, local officials and a handful of central figures whose lives intersect as events unfold — the novel tracks the slow unravelling of civic life as economic pressure, disinformation and strategic incursions erode institutions. Page focuses less on high-level geopolitics and more on how occupation filters down into daily routines: curfews, supply shortages, divided communities and the bureaucratic compromises that make control look almost mundane.
Beneath the plot's thriller elements the book reads as a warning about complacency, groupthink and the fragility of democratic norms. Page probes themes of collaboration and resistance, the moral cost of survival, and the way fear reshapes loyalties and identities — often in petty, corrosive ways rather than grand heroic gestures. The tone mixes bleak satire with stark realism, and the ending resists tidy resolution, leaving readers to reckon with the personal and national reckonings that follow once ordinary life has been remade by outside power."
Some wrinkling to the back of the dustjacket. Book in otherwise clean and in very good condition overall. Please study photos to further understand condition.
Size 22cm x 14.5cm x 3cm - 286 Pages
