What was he doing up a pole? Georgie asked despite herself.
Christ knows. Waitin for the end of the world, I spose. Fuck, he was the end of the world, the silly old prick. He was rubbish. They were all rubbish.
They’re all dead, Yogi, she said with feeling.
Bar one.
Yes, bar one.
And what d’ye figure the odds are on that, all of em dyin in a roll- over on their own driveway? I was there, love. You can’t bloody imagine. And that last boy sittin in the ambulance like a zombie. You could feel it comin off his skin like electricity, just pure and simple shit luck. That’s what you were foolin with. People did you a favour, love.
Well, thanks for the enlightenment, she said, pushing off the doorsill.
Community service, he muttered. That’s me.
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
Shrine
Photography Credits
photo by Robert Frith, courtesy of Black Swan State Theatre Company
poster reproduced courtesy of Black Swan State Theatre Company; photo by Robert Frith
poster reproduced courtesy of Sydney Theatre Company; photo by Grant Sparkes-Carroll
photos by Garry Ferguson, courtesy of Black Swan State Theatre Company
photo by Gary Marsh, courtesy of Black Swan State Theatre Company
photo courtesy of Black Swan State Theatre Company
PENGUIN BOOKS
Published by the Penguin Group
Penguin Group (Australia)
707 Collins Street, Melbourne, Victoria 3008, Australia
(a division of Pearson Australia Group Pty Ltd)
Penguin Group (USA) Inc.
375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014, USA
Penguin Group (Canada)
90 Eglinton Avenue East, Suite 700, Toronto, Canada ON M4P 2Y3
(a division of Pearson Penguin Canada Inc.)
Penguin Books Ltd
80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL England
Penguin Ireland
25 St Stephen’s Green, Dublin 2, Ireland
(a division of Penguin Books Ltd)
Penguin Books India Pvt Ltd
11 Community Centre, Panchsheel Park, New Delhi 110 017, India
Penguin Group (NZ)
67 Apollo Drive, Rosedale, Auckland 0632, New Zealand
Penguin Books (South Africa) (Pty) Ltd
Rosebank Office Park, Block D, 181 Jan Smuts Avenue, Parktown North,
Johannesburg 2196, South Africa
Penguin (Beijing) Ltd
7F, Tower B, Jiaming Center, 27 East Third Ring Road North, Chaoyang District,
Beijing 100020, China
Penguin Books Ltd, Registered Offices: 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England
First published by Penguin Group (Australia), 2013
Text copyright © Tim Winton 2013
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 Laura Thomas © Penguin Group (Australia)
Text design by Samantha Jayaweera © Penguin Group (Australia)
Cover photograph by Lisa Tomasetti (Aaron Pedersen as Bender, Sydney Theatre Company)
Production Notes adapted from the program of the Black Swan State Theatre Company
penguin.com.au
ISBN: 978-1-743-48192-9