April 2011 Guest Editor Lesley Lokko on Tim Winton...
Another Australian who’s got a way with words. I read Dirt Music years ago and was blown away by his prose, his magical attention to details, landscapes, weather, emotions, particularly when things are going wrong between couples...just stunning. I then read Breath, a surfing-coming-of-age tale that’s about so much more than waves and wet dreams and decided that I wouldn’t let the Noughties end without a visit Down Under. I didn’t...and his descriptions, particularly of the Queensland coastline, were staggeringly accurate. A real gem of a writer.
The Lovereading view to appear soon...
Like all good literature this is a novel on many levels. The exhilaration of danger, the power of the sea and the joy of youth challenging the elements sing from the pages, but beneath that is the pain of love, friendship and coming-of-age. This is a beautiful book.
Comparison: Sebastian Barry, Peter Carey, Kate Grenville.
| Primary Genre | Modern and Contemporary Fiction |
| Recommendations: |
Bruce Pike, or ‘Pikelet’, has lived all his short life in a tiny sawmilling town from where the thundering sea can be heard at night. He longs to be down there on the beach, amidst the pounding waves, but for some reason his parents forbid him. It’s only when he befriends Loonie, the local wild boy, that he finally defies them.
Intoxicated by the treacherous power of the sea and by their own youthful endurance, the two boys spurn all limits and rules, and fall into the company of adult mentors whose own addictions to risk take them to places they could never have imagined. Caught up in love and friendship and an erotic current he cannot resist, Pikelet faces challenges whose effects will far outlast his adolescence.
Breath is the story of lost youth recollected: its attractions, its compulsions, its moments of heartbreak and of madness. A young man learns what it is to be extraordinary, how to push himself, mind and body, to the limit in terrible fear and exhilaration, and how to mask the emptiness of leaving such intensity – in love and in life – behind.
Told with the immediacy and grace so characteristic of Tim Winton, Breath is a mesmeric novel by a writer at the height of his powers.
Breath features in the following genres: Modern and Contemporary Fiction, eBooks of the Month, General Fiction, Fiction, Recommendations
Breath is available in Paperback, Ebook, Hardback
Breath was written by Tim Winton and published by Picador an imprint of Pan Macmillan
Breath has 256 pages
