"THE SHEPHERD'S HUT" - Tim Winton (Aust 2018)
Other than the fact that it's a great read, this is an object lesson in how to write a novel. By the time you're about ten pages in it has hold of you, the pace is measured but constant, you know where it's set and when it's set, and the main character and his circumstances are acutely alive and in your face. And it's small-ish at about 75k words. But feels big.
Jaxie Clackton - even Winton's truly brilliant choice of a name says a bundle, it sounds so edgy and so bloody prickly! - and godknows that's Jaxie! He's a 14-15 year old (going on 40) with excesses of angst and attitude, from a dysfunctional home north of Perth somewhere, set in current day, and he's on the run, living off the land and his wits, telling his story in retrospect.
My particular copy is out of a street library, and has had a bit of a hard life, water damaged and stained (could be mould!), but if this isn't the way the publisher made it, they should've. It just goes so well with the story.
So, if you aspire to write both well and marketable, get hold of a copy and digest it whole. It'll do you a world of good!
Cheers....
T.R.E.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>