The Shepherd's Hut By Tim Winton

“The Shepherd’s Hut” by Tim Winton

The shepherd’s hut of the title is the location where Jaxie Clackton, a teenage boy ends up after a series of initial events that are covered in the first part of this unusual Australian story, which is recounted by Jaxie himself. We first meet him suffering not only some physical abuse from his father, who he works for, but also regular verbal insults; his mother, to whom he was close, having died some months earlier.

On finding his father crushed underneath his car, the jack having collapsed; he fears that he will be blamed. In their small town everybody knows everything, and their relationship is public knowledge. He sets off, on foot, in somewhat of a hurry taking many of the things he will need, but omitting to pack some other essentials. He is armed with a rifle, which he is more than proficient, for his age, at using.

He treks north for several days, the aim is to reach his girl friend and cousin Lee, and during this hike we learn about Jaxie and Lee, their childhood and how their unusual upbringings has brought them closer together. He reaches an old miner’s hut where he stays for a few days, hunting, but he cannot keep his meat so plans to fetch salt. It is on this outing he arrives at the shepherd’s hut, where he meets Fintan MacGillis, a retired Irish Catholic priest who lives out in this deserted location on the edge of the salt plain.

The story unfolds as their relationship develops from initial mistrust by Jaxie, who thinks he must be a paedophile, for him to have been marooned out their, apparently by the church, who twice a year resupply him with the basic essentials. The exact story is in part revealed.

Fintan is an odd character, but who would not be after living a solitary existence until a rather brash teenager turns up. Jaxie is always planning to move on but the days pass into weeks, and months until the wind changes which leads to a series of fairly brutal events which epitomise the harsh life that some inhabitants of Western Australia live.

This is not a story for those of a delicate disposition, equally it is not overly gruesome; it has it’s fair share of Aussie slang, and swearing, but it does give a very clear view of rural life and whilst some of that continent is very sophisticated, there are vast swathes of land where human inhabitation has declined leaving a scarred landscape.

Jaxie’s early life has also been scarred, how he and Fintan come together is a good read. Tim Winton is a leading Australian writer, one who has received many plaudits, and rightly so for this his latest novel.