Brilliant, funny, heartbreaking and incredibly wise, this is the second novel from the author of Rhubarb.
Description
Late on a hot summer night in the tail end of 1965, Charlie Bucktin, a precocious and bookish boy of thirteen, is startled by an urgent knock on the window of his sleep-out. His visitor is Jasper Jones, an outcast in the regional mining town of Corrigan. Rebellious, mixed-race and solitary, Jasper is a distant figure of danger and intrigue for Charlie. So when Jasper begs for his help, Charlie eagerly steals into the night by his side, terribly afraid but desperate to impress.
Jasper takes him through town and to his secret glade in the bush, and it's here that Charlie bears witness to Jasper's horrible discovery. With his secret like a brick in his belly, Charlie is pushed and pulled by a town closing in on itself in fear and suspicion as he locks horns with his tempestuous mother; falls nervously in love and battles to keep a lid on his zealous best friend, Jeffrey Lu.
And in vainly attempting to restore the parts that have been shaken loose, Charlie learns to discern the truth from the myth, and why white lies creep like a curse. In the simmering summer where everything changes, Charlie learns why the truth of things is so hard to know, and even harder to hold in his heart.
'Craig Silvey's Rhubarb was one of my favourite Australian novels of 2004 and heralded a major new voice in Australian literary fiction. His next offering in Jasper Jones is another beautifully constructed book with a page-turning narrative and outrageously good dialogue ... A meditation on innocence, yearning and coming of age in a quintessentially Australian setting, I have no doubt this novel will further cement Craig's place at the forefront of the next generation of Australian novelists. ' Dr Wendy Were, Artistic Director and Chief Executive, Sydney Writers' Festival
Reader Review
'I can't begin to tell you how exciting it was finishing this book; coming to the last 40 odd pages, hoping, holding my breath, reading with the biggest of lumps in my throat as a masterpiece evolved. There! Right in front of my eyes! ... [Jasper Jones] belongs to a very small number of books that I consider absolutely flawless.' - Annette, Timeless Books, SA
More reader reviews
Listen to Craig Silvey on Radio National's The Book Show
Awards
Overall Winner, Indie Book of the Year Award 2009
Winner, Indie Book of the Year 2009 - Fiction
About Craig Silvey
Craig Silvey grew up on an orchard in Dwellingup Western Australia. He now lives in Fremantle, where at the age of 19 he wrote his first novel, Rhubarb, published by Fremantle Press in 2004. In 2005, Rhubarb was chosen as the 'One Book' for the Perth International Writers' Festival, and was included in the national Books Alive campaign. Silvey also received a Sydney Morning Herald Best Young Novelist Award. In 2007, Silvey released The World According To Warren, a picture book affectionately starring the guide-dog from Rhubarb. His second novel, Jasper Jones, was completed with the aid of an Australia Council New Work Grant. Outside of literature, Silvey is the singer/songwriter for the band The Nancy Sikes!
| ISBN: |
9781741757743
|
| Australian Pub.: |
May 2009
|
| Edition: |
1
|
| Publisher: |
ALLEN & UNWIN
|
| Imprint: |
ALLEN & UNWIN
|
| Subject: |
Literary fiction
|
| Edition Number: |
1
|