Chilling is the only word for Richard Flanagan’s impeccably written The Unknown Terrorist (Grove $14.00). Gina Davies, known as “the Doll” at the Chairman’s Lounge where she is employed as a pole dancer is fixated on saving enough money to put a down payment on an apartment. She seeks to wipe out her westie trash roots by buying designer label everything. Mardi Gras Saturday night in Sydney, she goes out into the street and dances with a stranger who invites her back to his apartment. When she wakes up in the morning he is gone. Sipping coffee at the cafe next door, she watches black clad police descend on the neighborhood, surrounding the building she has just exited. Later, at home, she sees news of the police raid including what is referred to as security camera footage of the terrorist suspect in an attempted bombing, and his unknown female accomplice. It is her. For the next five days she is on the run as the security forces and media twist every aspect of her life to fit their needs for justification and self promotion. As her understanding of the way of the world and her place in it darken, so does her resolution as to what she must do. It is Australia, but it could be anywhere in the post 9/11 culture of fear. ~ Marla Vandewater