Promotional Information

The Shepherd's Hut is an exquisite, brutal coming of age novel. It tells the story of Jaxie, a boy on the run from his past, and explores the way love and hate combine to form a young man's beliefs.

About the Author

Tim Winton has published over twenty books for adults and children, and his work has been translated into many different languages. Since his first novel, An Open Swimmer, won the Australian/Vogel Award in 1981, he has won the Miles Franklin Award four times (for Shallows, Cloudstreet, Dirt Music and Breath) and twice been shortlisted for the Booker Prize (for The Riders and Dirt Music). Active in the environmental movement, he is the Patron of the Australian Marine Conservation Society. He lives in Western Australia.

Reviews

The Shepherd's Hut is wonderful. Brutal, agonizing, tender. Ultimately, it's a story of redemption and hope -- Sarah Winman, author of When God Was a Rabbit and Tin Man
A novel that reminds us what fiction can do. Here is a voice that digs into your viscera and changes you from the inside. This is fiction in the raw. -- Ross Raisin, author of God's Own Country
Winton's novel of breaking and mending is a searing, ardent and deeply empathetic dive into the turmoil of a mutilated heart. I will never be able to unhear the voice of young Jaxie Clackton, plangent and profane, who is destined to become one of the greatest characters in Australian literature. -- Geraldine Brooks, author of Year of Wonders

Even a regular Tim Winton novel - if such a thing exists - would knock most other novels into a cocked hat,
but The Shepherd's Hut is Winton at the top of his game, and that's saying something. A fierce, pungent, slangy,
humdinger of a book, with a real kick in the tail. Fiction doesn't get much better than this

-- Rupert Thomson, author of Divided Kingdom
Landscape and destiny are inextricable in Tim Winton's latest novel, and the result is a gritty realism that ultimately propels the story into the timelessness of a parable. All that I love about Winton's work is here: the poetry of the colloquial, fully realized characters, and the fearlessness to enter the deepest mysteries of being. The Shepherd's Hut is a brilliant reminder that Winton is one of the world's great living novelists. -- Ron Rash, author of Serena
A richly compassionate work, deeply informed by Winton's poetic genius -- Alex Miller, author of Journey to the Stone Country
A masterpiece from a masterful storyteller. We have not seen many people like Jaxie in Australian literature. When reading this book I wondered if Winton had actually found someone like Jaxie and had simply recorded him telling his incredible story. This is the magic of this book. The voice is so authentic and the language of this young character rings true to the people I have met throughout my life. I will not forget this book -- Alexis Wright, author of Carpentaria
Describes the chaotic struggle of new masculinity better than anything else I've read. As an exploration of the intergenerational trauma that plagues men, it couldn't be more timely. Seriously, it's incredible -- Ben Quilty
Tim Winton's Jaxie Clackton brings to mind the voices of other great survivors in literature, such as Huckleberry Finn and Oliver Twist, who struggle against impossible odds with pluck, common sense, and a refreshingly keen command of the vernacular. Once you start reading this book, you won't want to put it down. A powerful, most compelling story -- Brad Watson, author of Miss Jane
Shot through with the breathtaking evocation of landscape that is Winton's forte, The Shepherd's Hut is a hymn to the wild forces of nature and unsentimental belonging. Winton's enviable ability to elicit passion for Jaxie through his immaculate, poetic and troubled rush of vernacular-no matter how terrible Jaxie's actions-is broken, beautiful and ugly in all the best ways. -- Ray Robinson, author of Electricity
Superb. It's rare to feel fury and hope on the surface of the skin at the same time, and more rare to find that convincing in a story -- Cynan Jones, author of Cove