Juice

By: Tim Winton

Narrated by: David Field

'A masterful story for the ages . . . a book to hold close in the whip of hot wind, to commiserate with, to sing with. To read and weep.' TARA JUNE WINCH, GUARDIAN

'A hold-your-breath adventure set in an utterly plausible, sun-hammered future, JUICE will stab your conscience and break your heart.' EMMA DONOGHUE

'A searing but essential look at Earth after the human-induced apocalypse. Too real to be true. Too true to be real.' BOB BROWN


Two fugitives, a man and a child, drive all night across a stony desert. As dawn breaks, they roll into an abandoned mine site. From the vehicle they survey a forsaken place - middens of twisted iron, rusty wire, piles of sun-baked trash. They're exhausted, traumatised, desperate now. But as a refuge, this is the most promising place they've seen. The child peers at the field of desolation. The man thinks to himself, this could work.

Problem is, they're not alone.

So begins a searing, propulsive journey through a life whose central challenge is not simply a matter of survival, but of how to maintain human decency as everyone around you falls ever further into barbarism.


'A barnstorming, coruscating work of fiction, a heavyweight literary novel that sits squarely in the growing canon of "climate fiction" and it feels to me to be an instant classic of that genre. I strongly recommend it.' EMILY H WILSON, NEW SCIENTIST (UK)

'Juice, Winton has said, means "human resilience and moral courage", and there is that in spades in this complex, riveting book already being hailed as a masterpiece.' SYDNEY MORNING HERALD

'This is page-turning stuff, gripping and awfully gratifying . . . Winton's ending is a masterstroke, the heart-in-your-mouth final chapter one of the best things I've read in a long time.' RACHEL SEIFFERT, GUARDIAN UK

'Exciting . . . ambitious . . . Juice breaks new ground to face the climate emergency.' THE CONVERSATION

'Every machine-tooled sentence is its own reward . . . the sheer length of the novel becomes its greatest pleasure. Winton drives Juice towards its conclusion with a narrative force that feels almost cyclonic.' GEORDIE WILLIAMSON, THE AUSTRALIAN

'Full of surprises and stunning originality.' SIMON SMART, ABC ONLINE

'A must-read masterpiece from one of Australia's most celebrated writers.' STEPHEN ROMEI, SATURDAY PAPER

'Blistering . . . propulsive, addictive.' JOE RUBBO, READINGS

'Electrifying, sobering, grimly compelling . . . Juice is an act of hope, a belief in persuasion, in the power of stories.' JULIA BAIRD, ABC ONLINE

'Winton powerfully captures the cumulative damage of combat and betrayal, writing movingly about the way it isolates the protagonist.' JAMES BRADLEY, THE SPECTATOR

'Chilling.' THE AGE

'Some of the most high-octane thriller writing I've come across.' LUKE KENNARD, THE TELEGRAPH (UK)

'Thrilling . . . utterly absorbing.' CLAIRE ADAM, IRISH TIMES

'A profound as well as an enthralling novel.' AUSTRALIAN BOOK REVIEW

'Instant classic . . . in a class of its own.' AUSTRALIAN WOMEN'S WEEKLY

Rambling

Maybe I wasn't paying enough attention (ailidiobook) as I really like Tim Winton, However this felt lost and unfinished all the way through to an unsatisfactory end

Literary Mad Max

I'm a big fan of Tim Winton and I kept waiting for the magic to kick in, for there to be some point, but it didn't happen.
Great dystopian vision but light on explanation. Lots of loose ends. Plenty of thrills and spills but, ultimately, unsatisfying.
And, as for the end... Seriously?

Brilliant

A deeply disturbing vision of the future

We are all watching the destruction of our planet while our leaders are fanning the flames

Thank you Tim for providing a view of our future that is a warning to us all

A prescient, epic masterpiece that offers an incisive appraisal of our humanity and the choices we must face.

Great dystopian fiction that offers a frightening vision of a future earth that has been blighted by climate change and war. Winton questions what humanity is and may become, but the conclusion leaves the door open for hope that goodness may, in the end, prevail. Touching upon today's pressing issues such as AI, extremist political ideologies, and the (mis)information age, as well as our part in resource management and shaping the future of this planet, this piece offers an exciting adjunct to classics such as Frankenstein, Heart of Darkness and 1984. Are we creators, or destroyers? Selfish opportunists, or idealists capable of pursuing a moral goal that is greater than ourselves? The novel's conclusion brings these ideas into sharp relief as Winton establishes his creative prowess and versatility as a powerful Australian voice for our times.