The Shepherd's Hut
A Novel
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- $11.99
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
From Tim Winton, Australia’s most decorated and beloved novelist and the author of Cloudstreet, comes The Shepherd’s Hut, the story of a young man on a thrilling journey of self-discovery in one of the harshest, near-uninhabitable climates on Earth.
Tim Winton is Australia’s most decorated and beloved novelist. Short-listed twice for the Booker Prize and the winner of a record four Miles Franklin Literary Awards for Best Australian Novel, he has a gift for language virtually unrivaled among writers in English. His work is both tough and tender, primordial and new—always revealing the raw, instinctual drives that lure us together and rend us apart.
In The Shepherd’s Hut, Winton crafts the story of Jaxie Clackton, a brutalized rural youth who flees from the scene of his father’s violent death and strikes out for the vast wilds of Western Australia. All he carries with him is a rifle and a waterjug. All he wants is peace and freedom. But surviving in the harsh saltlands alone is a savage business. And once he discovers he’s not alone out there, all Jaxie’s plans go awry. He meets a fellow exile, the ruined priest Fintan MacGillis, a man he’s never certain he can trust, but on whom his life will soon depend. The Shepherd’s Hut is a thrilling tale of unlikely friendship and yearning, at once brutal and lyrical, from one of our finest storytellers.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
The latest from Winton (Breath) is a mournful and fast-paced journey into the life of a young man on his own. Left by himself after the death of his violent, hateful father, teenager Jaxie Clackton sets out deep into the empty saltlands of Western Australia, searching for peace and solitude. As he heads slowly north, intending to return to the only person who's ever loved him, he hunts kangaroo and stays away from the highways, carrying little but his rifle, water bottle, and binoculars. But soon Jaxie meets exiled Irish Catholic priest Fintan MacGillis. He must decide if he can trust MacGillis's offer of rest and help and then whether he will continue on to his original destination. The two fall into a rhythm, and possibly a friendship, until they discover something dangerous in the desert that threatens their safety. Winton's novel is alive with pain and suffering, but it is also full of moments of grace and small acts of kindness. Gorgeously written and taut with eloquent, edgy suspense, Jaxie's journey is a portrait of young manhood amidst extreme conditions, both inward and outward.