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The Shepherd's Hut

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The Shepherd's Hut

By: Tim Winton
Narrated by: Kate Mulvany
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About this listen

Fierce and lyrical, The Shepherd's Hut by Tim Winton is a story of survival, solitude and unlikely friendship. Most of all it is about what it takes to keep hope alive in a parched and brutal world.

For years Jaxie Clackton has dreaded going home. His beloved mum is dead, and he wishes his dad was too, until one terrible moment leaves his life stripped to nothing. No one ever told Jaxie Clackton to be careful what he wishes for.

And so Jaxie runs. There’s just one person in the world who understands him, but to reach her he’ll have to cross the vast saltlands of Western Australia. It is a place that harbours criminals and threatens to kill those who haven't reckoned with its hot, waterless vastness. This is a journey only a dreamer – or a fugitive – would attempt.

'A page-turning heartbreaker' – Emma Donoghue, author of Room.

 Coming of Age Family Life Fiction Genre Fiction Literary Fiction Small Town & Rural Feel-Good

Critic reviews

It may be that this is his best book yet . . . triumphantly good . . . blisteringly original
A page-turning heartbreaker (Emma Donoghue, author of Room)
Outstanding . . . compulsively suspenseful . . . dazzlingly good (Peter Kemp)
Exhilarating, compelling . . . elegiac, transcendent
Wonderful. Brutal, agonizing, tender (Sarah Winman, author of When God Was a Rabbit and Tin Man)
Raw, brutal and merciless . . . Holden Caulfield, you have been eclipsed
Remarkable . . . astonishing . . . extraordinary . . . Winton has written a novel which - and I can have no higher praise - I wish to re-read . . . it is clever, canny and complex
Winton’s novel is layered, lyrical and intense . . . unforgettable . . . heartstopping
A transfixing performance (Philip Hensher, Books of the Year, Spectator)
A master novelist at the very peak of their craft. Full of heart and life and beauty (Evie Wyld, author of All The Birds, Singing)
A novel that reminds us what fiction can do. Here is a voice that digs into your viscera and changes you from the inside (Ross Raisin, author of God's Own Country)
Searing, ardent and deeply empathetic . . . Jaxie Clackton, plangent and profane, is destined to become one of the greatest characters in Australian literature (Geraldine Brooks, author of Year of Wonders)
Superb. It's rare to feel fury and hope on the surface of the skin at the same time, and more rare to find that convincing in a story (Cynan Jones, author of Cove)
A fierce, pungent, slangy, humdinger of a book, with a real kick in the tail. Fiction doesn't get much better than this (Rupert Thomson, author of Divided Kingdom)
Landscape and destiny are inextricable in Tim Winton’s latest novel, and the result is a gritty realism that ultimately propels the story into the timelessness of a parable. All that I love about Winton’s work is here: the poetry of the colloquial, fully realized characters, and the fearlessness to enter the deepest mysteries of being. The Shepherd’s Hut is a brilliant reminder that Winton is one of the world’s great living novelists. (Ron Rash, author of Serena)
Winton is, as always, a superb painter of Australian space. He takes this drear landscape and invests it with what can only be described as majesty . . . Winton's achievement in these pages is of a piece with his larger fictional project. He seeks to re-enchant the world, and to provide, via the essentially sceptical machinery of literature, a sense of secular communion. A novel is not a church, and Winton is not a preacher. But he is a voice of sanity and his art is tuned to the possibility of care, even grace
All stars
Most relevant
The reading was excellent and the story built convincingly. unfortunately it seemed to suddenly run out of steam and came to an abrupt end. pity.

Good story that seems unfinished

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I loved the amount of information left out and the sprinkles that fill the gap. Very cleverly you are pulled through what feels like just a moment. I liked the characters. It was genius to start and end in an apparent loop. I felt I had briefly stepped into someone's story, like I bumped into them in a cafè at an airport and their story continues immediately but thats the only part you get. You're left with many questions and assumptions but in a satisfied way. The coffee has finished and the protagonist has moved on - there's a strange reality to that approach. I could see it adapted in someway for stage. very interesting book.

intriguing how it is composed

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Great story... And a good but disconcerting reader delivers the first person narrative.

The protagonist is a boy... Let's call him a young man. Narrator a woman...

Why, why the female voice?

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Beautiful book told in 'Aussie' language, not a word was wasted. Although there was a lot of violence in this book, characters travelled a journey of discovery, from despair to enlightenment and hope. Emotions are laid bare constantly, and relationships are raw and deep.

Not a word wasted

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I really liked this book. It is the first book I've heard from this author and I was so impressed. I enjoyed the reader also

A riveting story

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