Tim Winton is an excellent author but you should definitely read some of his other books before trying to read The Shepherds Hut.
This book is basically a 21st century version of Huckleberry Finn narrated by a 15 year old who is a complete lunatic, who has had a horrible childhood. It takes place in Western Australia, it involved a disgraced Catholic Priest and some other not for the kids subjects, and the use of Australian slang and colloquialisms is very heavy. Making it a challenge to get through at times.
But
The book is definitely worth reading. ( )

Wow. Just wow. This is tim Winton at his finest. I have just finished this and I’m still processing. In short, an abused teenager, Jaxie, comes home to find his father dead (this isn’t a spoiler, it happens within the first couple of chapters). He then takes off into the bush and comes across an isolated older man.

As in all tim winton’s books, the landscape of Western Australia is a character in its own right. Harsh, brutal but luminescent, the desolation and loneliness underpins the book. Apart from the landscape there are only two major characters, jaxie and the older man, who I don’t want to give too much detail about (spoilers sweetie!) however tim Winton develops them brilliantly, showing Jaxie’s development and growth from a neglected, abused and angry teen into someone who wrestles with doing the right thing and loyalty and family, when he hasn’t had an example of this in his home life. He also explores growing older and regrets and paying for our past sins, and the way this plays on our minds obsessively.

As in all good literature, this book questions what does it mean to be human? What do we want in life? And how do we cope when what we want doesn’t eventuate? When life and circumstances throw a spanner in the works? What is truly important to us as humans?

At times brutal, heartbreaking, tender and humourous, sometimes all at once, the minutia of survival under the odds, whether physical or emotional, is stripped down to the bones. I hope it works out well for jaxie, and he finds what he is looking for.

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Very well written from the perspective of an uneducated 15 year old. When I first read this it was of-putting but on second reading it reflected the character very accurately and I became accustomed to it. The language is consistent all the way. The story is touching, delving into issues of domestic violence, child neglect, paedophilia in the Church and human relations in general. ( )

I am going to digress a bit on this one as I just read that it is being criticised for the main characters being only male and the ngative way the few women characters are portrayed. I am aware of the Me Too movement but I am stunned when I read someone telling an author either how they should have written their or how their book fails because it doesn’t contain certain items from an agenda. I have also read how white people cannot write authentically about black people, men about women and so on.

Jesus Christ! it is fiction for fuck sake. It is not real! It requires an imagination not a fucking checklist of permissible characters. Grow up and write your own book to show all us dumb fucks how it should be done. I dare you!

Now to this very fine book.

One of the things I love about Tim Winton’s writing is how he brings the country and its people alive. I am in Oz right now as I write this and unless you have been here it is very hard to describe the immenseness, dryness and specificness of this country. There is no shortage of bad people here and a lot of space to bury bodies. His combination of bad people and huge dry open spaces is put together so skilfully I am looking out for these people as I drive along. Any ute with a good covering a red dust surely is driven by a psychopath who has just buried a few in the outback.

This is a fraught narrative, more a stream of semi-consciousness than a well told tale. A meeting of opposites in a place that just wants people to die.

Last time I was here the police were digging up an area where a man had buried a dozen or more hitchhikers before he died and then his nephew took over the “family business” and buried eight or nine more. Meanwhile just down the road the police were trying to catch a father and son who had been on the run for around three and a half years obviously getting aided by people as they are chased across the state. It’s that kind of country and it takes a massive talent to get even close to capturing the essence of this place. Thank you Mr Winton
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The story is told by Jaxie, young teenager. It's mostly his recounting what is in his head and his thoughts about the his past, his mother, his stepfather, his cousin Lee, and Fintan McGillas, the guy at the shepherd's hut. His resilience and response to the landscape are notable. It feels like not a lot happens, but it's not slow moving. Jaxie's voice is well captured, as is Fintan's. ( )