Jerra Nilsam looked down and gripped an arm. His joined fingers were a bracelet on his son’s wrist. He felt blood. Yes, that was blood there, and he looked up at the nurse in defiance.
‘Go to hell,’ he said. ‘This one’s mine.’
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
A number of these stories have appeared before, in Island, Bulletin, MJ, Australian Literary Magazine, This Australia, Matilda, Sydney Morning Herald, Meanjin, Follow Me, and Scripsi: the author thanks these publications.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Tim Winton has published twenty-one books for adults and children, and his work has been translated into twenty-five languages. Since his first novel, An Open Swimmer, won the Australian/Vogel Award in 1981, he has won the Miles Franklin Award four times (for Shallows, Cloudstreet, Dirt Music and Breath) and twice been shortlisted for the Booker Prize (for The Riders and Dirt Music). He lives in Western Australia.
ALSO BY TIM WINTON
Novels
An Open Swimmer
Shallows
That Eye, the Sky
In the Winter Dark
Cloudstreet
The Riders
Dirt Music
Breath
Stories
Scission
The Turning
For younger readers
Jesse
Lockie Leonard, Human Torpedo
The Bugalugs Bum Thief
Lockie Leonard, Scumbuster
Lockie Leonard, Legend
Blueback
The Deep
Non-fiction
Land’s Edge
Down to Earth (with Richard Woldendorp)
Smalltown (with Martin Mischkulnig)
Plays
Rising Water
Signs of Life
PENGUIN BOOKS
Published by the Penguin Group
Penguin Group (Australia)
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(a division of Pearson Australia Group Pty Ltd)
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(a division of Pearson New Zealand Ltd)
Penguin Books Ltd, Registered Offices: 80 Strand, London, WC2R 0RL, England
First published by McPhee Gribble, 1987
This digital edition published by Penguin Group (Australia), 2012
Copyright © Tim Winton, 1987
The moral right of the author has been asserted
All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise), without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book.
Cover design by John Canty © Penguin Group (Australia)
Cover photograph by Jacqui Henshaw
eISBN: 9781742537351
penguin.com.au