The Shepherd's Hut

Starred review from April 30, 2018
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.

June 15, 2018
Renowned Australian novelist Winton (The Boy Behind the Curtain, 2016, etc.) turns once again to the dark side of the Antipodean dream.Jaxie Clackton, whose very name sounds like a curse, is a poster child for teenage disaffection. As Winton's story opens, he's on the run. And for good reason: As that story begins to unfold, we learn that his stepfather, whom he unlovingly calls "Captain Wankbag"--"that bucket of dog sick was a bastard to both of us," he protests to his mother, who will soon die of cancer--has wound up on the wrong side of a jacked-up car, and Jaxie fears that the good people of Monkton will assume the worst: "They'll say I kicked the jack out from under the roo bar and crushed his head like a pig melon." Given a long history of drunken beatings and loud arguments, the neighbors would have a point, so Jaxie lights out for the territory, where his girlfriend awaits him. First, though, Jaxie has to go to Ned Kelly and hide out for a while, which puts him in the Outback orbit of a disgraced ex-priest named Fintan who, alone with his books in a dusty camp, makes a poor hermit, given as he is to outrushing bursts of speech: "Please God, whatever I was I am no longer....All is forgotten, if not forgiven--it could have come to that. But I don't trust the thought. I don't know if it's because it would be too easy or too terrible to imagine no one cares anymore." Unaccustomed to the strange discipline of the place--Fintan even gives him a toothbrush, for heaven's sake--Jaxie is suspicious, secretive, a short step away from violence. He has an opportunity to make use of that penchant once others discover Fintan's whereabouts, leaving it to Jaxie to become "an instrument of God" in all his terrible wrath.Winton's story is worthy of a Peckinpah film--and splendidly written, if disturbing to the core.

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Starred review from May 1, 2018
When Jaxie Clackton enters the auto shed and finds his abusive father dead from a sudden and brutal accident, his first instinct is to run, knowing that he would be accused of murder. Jaxie grabs a rifle, shells, and a pair of binoculars. Wearing his steel-toed boots, he plans to walk a great distance to meet up with his girlfriend, Lee. Jaxie's inner thoughts about and memories of his mother, who died of cancer, and his beloved Lee are given the wide breadths only a solitary traveler can indulge. His journey, however, becomes a fight for survival as the ill-equipped teenager quickly struggles with starvation and thirst. This leads to his discovering another stranded soul in the wilderness, and perhaps even his own salvation. Winton (Island Home, 2017) thrusts the reader into the barren and unforgiving salt land in western Australia. With the author's intimate knowledge of the harsh landscape, it serves as the catalyst for action. Jaxie's distinctive, gritty language renders his story visceral, and an absolute thrill to read.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2018, American Library Association.)

April 15, 2018

Teenager Jaxie Clackton has been raised by his drunken, abusive father and persevering mother in small-town Western Australia. After his mother's death from cancer, he's left alone with his father's brutality. When his father dies accidentally while repairing a car, an incident Jaxie fears will be blamed on him, he sets out for the back county on a desperate journey toward his cousin Lee, with whom he's romantically entangled. Hiking for days, he comes to a dry salt lake where he once camped with his father. Wandering away from the abandoned cabin where he's holed up, he's surprised by the presence of another human being--the disgraced priest Fintan MacGillis, who has been exiled to a solitary life for reasons he won't divulge. The two form an unlikely friendship of need until Jaxie's discovery of a nearby marijuana growing operation upends their existence together. VERDICT Set in a harsh landscape that mirrors the novel's emotional terrain, this latest from four-time Miles Franklin Award winner Winton (Cloudstreet) is a compelling tale of physical and psychological survival as Jaxie learns how the most elemental aspects of his character provide the impetus to strive for the human tenderness and warmth he yearned for in his previous life. [See Prepub Alert, 12/11/17.]--Lawrence Rungren, Andover, MA

Copyright 2018 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

April 15, 2018

A four-time Miles Franklin Award winner, twice short-listed for the Booker, Winton will likely dazzle with this story of life-battered Jaxie Clackton, who leaves behind his father's violent death for the wilds of Western Australia. He's barely surviving when he realizes that he has a neighbor, a disgraced priest, whom he isn't sure whether to trust.

Copyright 2018 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.