The Shepherd's Hut: A Novel

This book was recommended by a friend, but I forget why her review got me interested. Whatever it was, apparently it didn't spark what I expected, as the style and content of the story were something of a surprise to me. A young man in not-very-good financial circumstances, ill-used by his father and doing a slow burn since childhood, comes home to a shocking discovery and heads out for the territories where no one will find him. The tale of his fairly resourceful activities after that and his sometimes also-shocking remembrances - which he goes over in his head frequently - is, to put it mildly, absorbing. Told in Australian idiom and slang, it might take a bit of getting used to, but it certainly isn't dull. I'm a slow reader (I like to savor passages) and I zipped right through this. Tim Winton, the author, is a premier Australian writer who has been short-listed a few times for the Booker Prize, and deserves the accolades.

I'm a huge Tim Winton fan and have to say this isn't one of my favourites. It's an interesting read, albeit disturbing in a multi-layered way which I'd have to give away plot to explain. If you haven't read any of Winton's work before, I'd recommend you don't start with this one. Instead try The Riders or Dirt Music or Cloudstreet. If you're into short stories which is a good way to get into Winton's work try his book The Turning. This one takes a little more effort due to the dialogue, but as in all of Winton's work the Australian landscape is the star.

At first I thought I wouldn’t like it because his culture specific terminology was hard to follow, but it wasn’t long before I was thinking in his terms. The book is a read that keeps pulling the reader along and while it seems as if the author could just speed things up a bit, I kept reading because I wanted to know what happened next. And I read to the very end... The characters are believable and genuine. I wanted them to survive and succeed, even though I thought they probably wouldn’t. It is a refreshing read and even though the protagonist is a youth, I identified with him and even wanted to make suggestions. I passed the book along to my grandson who is fourteen.

OK page-turner, not up to his usually great standard ( a big fan), I don't think the conceit of telling the tale from Jax's point of view worked all that well. A bit clumsy in parts with me trying to reconcile in my own mind the speech and thought patterns of an almost illiterate 15-16 year old with the level of philosophical thought and reflection. Like I said, OK but not his best. Nowhere near the beauty and depth of "Eyrie" for example. The old man character was almost a caricature at times. Only for the real Winton fans for mine.

A gripping read although the ending disappointing in that I was left wanting more. Tim Winton takes the reader into an often brutal world filled with brilliantly drawn characters living on the edge but he doesn’t always offer the reader much more than a glimpse of hope or redemption. The harshness of the Australian landscape infuses everything. But I guess there is enough beauty that emerges so I keep going back for more.

I’d love a gritty novel, Cormac McCarthy style, about a traumatized but tough boy finding his way through a desolate landscape and his own profound confusion to his own true love.

This is a well crafted and harsh look at Australia. The author is famous for his authenticity and unvarnished perspectives on Oz and especially male/female interactions in the Outback or rural Australia. Hard to read but very compelling and complicated. It’s the literary analog to our muddy view of the mystical Outback.

I was so engrossed. This is a rough ride, a story of faith, and suffering and the imperfect human agonies and loves. It’s great. So great.