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Jack cover art

Jack

By: Judy Johnson
Narrated by: Alan King
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Editor reviews

Winner of the CJ Dennis Prize, this suspenseful story is set in 1938, on the eve of World War II. One-eyed captain Jack Falconer and his crew of misfits are on a pearling boat in the Torres Strait, foraging for trochus shells. Narrator Alan King gives Jack a laconic voice that is streaked with lonely bitterness and hints of violence - this is a man with a dark past that continues to torment him and the people unfortunate enough to be around. King embellishes the multicultural crew's accents, but his performance is steady and thoughtful as Jack wrestles with his demons and the elements out on the pitiless Coral Sea.

Summary

It's 1938, the eve of World War II, and a pearling lugger in the Torres Strait is the place he chooses to hide. But Jack's demons follow him out to sea and rise to the surface just as surely as the pearl shell his divers collect from the dangers of the deep. Embittered, intelligent and self-destructive, Jack's only way to prove himself is to compete with, defeat and destroy the very weaknesses he fears.

Set in the expansive and beautiful Coral Sea, Jack's provocative tale of a dangerous captain and his young crew at odds with the elements - and each other - holds the reader breathless until the very last page.

©2006 Judy Johnson (P)2007 Bolinda Publishing

Critic reviews

"A 'wild mouse' of sea, sex and hallucination. Judy Johnson is a terrific storyteller." (Dorothy Porter)
"Marked by a restraint that is a source of its disturbing force." (The Canberra Times)
"The narrative is compelling, characters powerful, and the setting at once squalid and rich. The tension sustained here between a claustrophobic pearling lugger and the seductive tropical seas is unrelenting." (The Victorian Premier's Awards)

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