Dirt Music

Tim Winton Press Reviews

'Winton keeps writing fiction that makes the novel feel alive to a continent of possibilities' - Evening Standard

'Winton is not a great Australian novelist; he is a great novelist, full stop' - The Times

'Written in seemingly effortless prose that never puts a foot wrong'
Sunday Times

'Shortlisted for the Booker Prize for his novel The Riders in 1995, Tim Winton is one of the best Australian writers around. Every word is made to count in his fiercely poetic prose - you can see the big Western Australian skies, taste the tang of the salt bush and feel the dry red heat of the outback in every sentence of this wonderful, brutal book. Georgie Jutland is a woman whose life is in a mess. Aged 40, still beautiful despite the sun lines around her eyes, she has quit nursing - itself the career she chose when she abandoned the idea of becoming a doctor - to become unwanted stepmother to two difficult boys, and the common-law wife of wealthy fisherman Jim Buckridge. The Buckridge family is the aristocracy of the rough town of White Point, where licences to fish for lobster and oysters are licences to print money - and jealously guarded. After Georgie's vodka-fuelled late-night Internet-surfing binges are interrupted by the shadow of a poacher's pick-up truck in the distance, her innocuous secret outings to swim with his dog initially go unnoticed. But when she meets the 'shamateur himself, hillbilly musician Luther Fox, she finds herself sliding inexorably into the mire of a violent small-town rivalry she can only begin to understand. The vivid cast of supporting characters begin to close ranks against the stranger, and Georgie's emotional life becomes even more complicated when her mother dies suddenly. Jim and Luther circle each other from a distance, as wary as wild animals, but when Luther takes off, running from the demons of his past as much as from Georgie, Jim's reaction is unpredictable, and Georgie realizes how much the two men have in common. A dangerous trail takes Georgie, Jim and Luther to the outside limits of the glorious, sprawling country Winton obviously loves so much - and to the limits of human endurance. Unmissable. (Kirkus UK)