LISA MOORE has already paid her dues in Canada, what with being a bestselling author and a columnist for the Toronto Globe & Mail. Now, she makes her American debut with Alligator, which follows 17-year-old Colleen, who dreams of becoming an eco-terrorist, Colleen’s grief-stricken mother, Beverly, and her career-obsessed Aunt Madeleine. Frank -- similarly preoccupied and heartbroken -- becomes enamored of Colleen and entangled with a Russian gangster, and that takes Alligator into full-on attack mode. Moore’s bold prose keeps the tension pulsing; she reads at Newtonville Books, 296 Walnut St, Newton | 7:30 pm | free | 617.244.6619.