Tim Winton

Tom Keely's reputation is in ruins. And that's the upside. Divorced and unemployed, he's lost faith in everything precious to him. Holed up in a grim highrise, cultivating his newfound isolation, Keely looks down at a society from which he's retired hurt and angry. He's done fighting the good fight, and well past caring. But even in his seedy flat, ducking the neighbours, he's not safe from entanglement. All it takes is an awkward encounter in the lobby. A woman from his past, a boy the likes of which he's never met before. Two strangers leading a life beyond his experience and into whose orbit he falls despite himself. What follows is a heart-stopping, groundbreaking novel for our times - funny, confronting, exhilarating and haunting. Inhabited by unforgettable characters, Eyrie asks how, in an impossibly compromised world, we can ever hope to do the right thing. Longlisted for the 2014 Miles Franklin Literary Award 'From the opening pages.... You know you are in the hands of a master...' Weekend Australian

Eyrie

Tom Keely has lost his bearings. His reputation in ruins, he finds himself holed up in a flat at the top of a grim high-rise, looking down on the world he's fallen out of love with. He has cut himself off, and intends to keep it that way, until one day he runs into some neighbours: a woman from his past and her introverted young boy. The encounter shakes him up in a way he doesn't understand and, despite himself, Keely lets them in. But the pair come trailing a dangerous past of their own, and Keely is soon immersed in a world that threatens to destroy everything he has learnt to love. Eyrie is a heart-stopping novel written with breath-taking tenderness. Funny, confronting, exhilarating and haunting, it asks how, in an impossibly compromised world, we can ever hope to do the right thing.

Jan Jackson

Wonderful. Winton can do no wrong, for me. A book about family, and the strength it takes - and gives. A book about love, and understanding, and just continually trying. A book about becoming unafraid. 

The book becomes more urgent as it goes on, as the central characters become more and more enmeshed. In the end, it becomes a real page turner, and the climax is a reward; unapologetic and fitting. 

Amanda Wells

Well. I think my feelings on finishing this book are pretty much: Holy Shit.

I am very used to Tim Winton's style of writing - his narrative voice. But to see it put to this story was disconcerting to start with - and I think that works to the advantage of the story. There is always darkness and depth suggested within Winton's works, and in Eyrie it is given much more free reign. 

Keely's world is bleak. It is depressing, even when you catch glimpses through referenced characters of how the world could look if only you were viewing it through a different character. But to Keely, the world is desolate. His new home is near dystopian. His relationships are all fraught, and he can't even recall or control his waking or sleeping mind some of the time.

This is not the kind of book I usually like. Keely isn't terribly likeable, apart from his insistence on trying to do the right thing (even when it doesn't look like there IS a right thing). The more thrilling aspects of the plot all happen at the end, and we don't get a very solid conclusion. In short, there isn't much to "like" about this book. 

But like it I did. It felt true. Even Winton's depiction of hopelessness contains hope and beauty. I don't know if I'll ever hate one of his books... guess I'll have to keep on reading.

Eyrie

Reviews