That Eye, The Sky

Book excerpt: That Eye, the Sky is Tim Winton's luminous novel about a boy's vision of the world beyond, and about finding a way through cataclysm. Ort knows the sky is watching. He knows what it means to watch; he spends long hours listening at doors and peering through cracks. Things are terribly wrong. His father is withering away, his sister is consumed by hatred, his grandmother is all inside herself, and his mother, a flower-child of the 1960s, is brave but helpless. Then a strange man appears at their door. That Eye, the Sky is a novel about the miraculous power of love, and the blurry distinctions between the natural and the supernatural. All this, and more, begins at the moment the ute driven by Ort Flack's father ploughs into a roadside tree, throwing the whole world out of kilter. 'The best book about a boy I've read since Huckleberry Finn.' Sydney Morning Herald 'A story of generosity, insight and originality.' Weekend Australian 'A wrenching story that proves that love like Ort's can prevail against hell itself.' Publisher's Weekly