Past The Shallows

“If you read only one book this year, make sure it’s this” (The Sunday Times, London): An award-winning debut novel from a rising star in Australia—a hauntingly beautiful story about the bond of brotherhood and the fragility of youth. Joe, Miles, and Harry are growing up on the remote southern coast of Tasmania—a stark, untamed landscape swathed by crystal blue waters. The rhythm of their days is dictated by the natural world, and by their father’s moods. Like the ocean he battles daily to make a living as a fisherman, he is wild and volatile—a hard drinker warped by a devastating secret. Unlike Joe, Harry and Miles are too young to move out, and so they attempt to stay as invisible as possible whenever their father is home. Miles tries his best to watch out for Harry, but he can’t be there all the time. Often alone, Harry finds joy in the small treasures he discovers by the edge of the sea—shark eggs, cuttlefish bones, and the friendship of a mysterious neighbor. But sometimes small treasures, or a brother’s love, simply are not enough…

PAST THE SHALLOWS is the award-winning, bestselling debut novel from Favel Parrett recently named on Oprah's Book Club 2.0 as a 'Can't Miss New Paperback' and now including bonus material from her new book, WHEN THE NIGHT COMES. Everyone loves Harry. Everyone except his father. Three brothers, Joe, Miles and Harry, are growing up on the remote south coast of Tasmania. The brother' lives are shaped by their father's moods - like the ocean he fishes, his is wild and unpredictable. He is a bitter man, warped by a devastating secret. Miles tries his best to watch out for Harry, the youngest, but he can't be there all the time. Often alone, Harry finds joy in the small treasure he discovers, in the shark eggs and cuttlefish bones. In a kelpie pup, a big mug of Milo, and a secret friendship with a mysterious neighbour. But sometimes small treasures, or a brother's love, are not enough. Winner, Newcomer of the Year, Australian Book Industry Awards (ABIA), 2012 Winner, Dobbie Literary Award, 2012 PRAISE for PAST THE SHALLOWS: 'that rare thing, a finely crafted literary novel that is genuinely moving and full of heart' THE AGE 'an understated and beautifully penned story set on the Tasmanian coast, gives voice to two brothers as their lives are influenced by unpredictable forces....Parrett's writing is exquisite in its simplicity and eloquence, and her narrative is heart-rending.This poignant story resonates.' KIRKUS REVIEWS, USA 'Beautiful, stripped-back prose...there is magic here. Like Cormac McCarthy, Parrett packs a huge emotional punch thanks to the elegant brevity of her style. Stark, but unforgettable...' MARIE CLAIRE, UK 'If you read only one book this year make sure it's this.' THE SUNDAY TIMES, Tasmania 'Wintonesque' HERALD SUN 'I loved Past the Shallows' Kevin Powers, author of THE YELLOW BIRDS

Shortlisted for the 2012 Miles Franklin Award, PAST THE SHALLOWS is a powerful and hauntingly beautiful novel from an extraordinary new Australian writer who is compared with Cormac McCarthy and Tim Winton. 'If you read only one book this year, make sure it's this' Sunday Times 'I loved Past the Shallows' Kevin Powers, author of The Yellow Birds Everyone loves Harry. Except his father. Joe, Miles and Harry are growing up on the remote south coast of Tasmania. The brothers' lives are shaped by their father's moods - like the ocean he fishes, he is wild and unpredictable. He is a bitter man, with a devastating secret. Miles does his best to watch out for Harry, the youngest, but he can't be there all the time. Often alone, Harry finds joy in the small treasures he discovers, in shark eggs and cuttlefish bones. In a kelpie pup, a mug of hot chocolate, and a secret friendship with a mysterious neighbour. But sometimes small treasures, or a brother's love are not enough.

WINNER- The ABIA Award (Newcomer of the Year) 2012 WINNER- The Dobbie Literary Award 2012 Shortlisted for The Miles Franklin Literary Award 2012 Shortlisted for The ABIA Award (Book of the Year) 2012 Shortlisted for The ABIA Award (Literary Book of the Year) 2012 Shortlisted for The ABA's Bookseller's Choice Award 2012 Shortlisted for The Indies Award (Debut Fiction) 2012 Past the Shallows is the award-winning, bestselling debut novel from Favel Parrett recently named on Oprah's Book Club 2.0 as a 'Can't Miss New Paperback' and now including bonus material from her new book, When the Night Comes. Everyone loves Harry. Everyone except his father. Three brothers, Joe, Miles and Harry, are growing up on the remote south coast of Tasmania. The brother' lives are shaped by their father's moods - like the ocean he fishes, his is wild and unpredictable. He is a bitter man, warped by a devastating secret. Miles tries his best to watch out for Harry, the youngest, but he can't be there all the time. Often alone, Harry finds joy in the small treasure he discovers, in the shark eggs and cuttlefish bones. In a kelpie pup, a big mug of Milo, and a secret friendship with a mysterious neighbour. But sometimes small treasures, or a brother's love, are not enough. 'Wintonesque' - Hearald Sun 'that rare thing, a finely crafted literary novel that is genuinely moving and full of heart' - The Age 'an understated and beautifully penned story set on the Tasmanian coast, gives voice to two brothers as their lives are influenced by unpredictable forces....Parrett's writing is exquisite in its simplicity and eloquence, and her narrative is heart-rending.This poignant story resonates' - Kirkus Reviews, USA 'Beautiful, stripped-back prose...there is magic here. Like Cormac McCarthy, Parrett packs a huge emotional punch thanks to the elegant brevity of her style. Stark, but unforgettable...' - Marie Claire, UK 'If you read only one book this year make sure it's this' - The Sunday Times, Tasmania 'I loved Past the Shallows' - Kevin Powers, author of The Yellow Birds

From award-winning author of Past The Shallows, Favel Parrett, a story about the moments that save us and the moments that change us. Running away from the mainland was supposed to make their lives better. But, for Isla and her brother, their mother?s sadness and the cold, damp greyness of Hobart?s stone streets seeps into everything. Then, one morning, Isla sees a red ship. That colour lights her day. And when a sailor from the ship befriends her mother, he shares his stories with them all ? of Antarctica, his home in Denmark and life onboard. Like the snow white petrels that survive in the harshest coldest place, this lonely girl at the bottom of the world will learn that it is possible to go anywhere, be anything. But she will also find out that it is just as easy to lose it all. For Isla, those two long summers will change everything. When the Night Comes is an evocative and gently told story about the power fear and kindness have to change lives. Reviews for Favel Parrett's PAST THE SHALLOWS 'This book is that rare thing, a finely crafted literary novel that is genuinely moving and full of heart.' - The Age 'Parrett's starkly precise evocation of Tasmania's winter landscape [is] compelling. The book?s tragic outcome leaves the reader feeling genuinely bereft?' - The Guardian (UK) 'Beautiful, stripped-back prose?there is magic here. Like Cormac McCarthy, Parrett packs a huge emotional punch thanks to the elegant brevity of her style. Stark, but unforgettable?' - Marie Claire (UK) 'If you read only one book this year make sure it's this.' - Sunday Times, Tasmania 'So real, so true - this novel sweeps you away in its tide' - Robert Drewe

Finalist for the 2011 Pulitzer Prize in General Nonfiction: “Nicholas Carr has written a Silent Spring for the literary mind.”—Michael Agger, Slate “Is Google making us stupid?” When Nicholas Carr posed that question, in a celebrated Atlantic Monthly cover story, he tapped into a well of anxiety about how the Internet is changing us. He also crystallized one of the most important debates of our time: As we enjoy the Net’s bounties, are we sacrificing our ability to read and think deeply? Now, Carr expands his argument into the most compelling exploration of the Internet’s intellectual and cultural consequences yet published. As he describes how human thought has been shaped through the centuries by “tools of the mind”—from the alphabet to maps, to the printing press, the clock, and the computer—Carr interweaves a fascinating account of recent discoveries in neuroscience by such pioneers as Michael Merzenich and Eric Kandel. Our brains, the historical and scientific evidence reveals, change in response to our experiences. The technologies we use to find, store, and share information can literally reroute our neural pathways. Building on the insights of thinkers from Plato to McLuhan, Carr makes a convincing case that every information technology carries an intellectual ethic—a set of assumptions about the nature of knowledge and intelligence. He explains how the printed book served to focus our attention, promoting deep and creative thought. In stark contrast, the Internet encourages the rapid, distracted sampling of small bits of information from many sources. Its ethic is that of the industrialist, an ethic of speed and efficiency, of optimized production and consumption—and now the Net is remaking us in its own image. We are becoming ever more adept at scanning and skimming, but what we are losing is our capacity for concentration, contemplation, and reflection. Part intellectual history, part popular science, and part cultural criticism, The Shallows sparkles with memorable vignettes—Friedrich Nietzsche wrestling with a typewriter, Sigmund Freud dissecting the brains of sea creatures, Nathaniel Hawthorne contemplating the thunderous approach of a steam locomotive—even as it plumbs profound questions about the state of our modern psyche. This is a book that will forever alter the way we think about media and our minds.

I WAS monstrously attracted by a suggestion that these essays should bear the general title of “Joking Apart.” It seemed to me a simple and sensible way of saying that the reader of these pages must not look for many jokes, certainly not merely for jokes, because these are controversial essays, covering all subjects on which a controversialist is challenged, and not particular subjects chosen as they are chosen by an essayist. It is an awful revelation of the world of unreason into which we have wandered, that people more practical than I are convinced that if I say that this is apart from joking, everyone will think it is a joke. To my simple mind it seems very much as if I wanted to call a book, “Away from Jericho,” and everybody assumed that I had accepted a very general recommendation to go to Jericho. Many essays could be written on this strange modern sensibility to mere verbal allusion, or the introduction of certain words, even to repudiate them. But the only point here involved is that these essays are all under the conditions of controversy, which involve the absolute necessity of disgusting those with whom we disagree on any subject, and boring those who are indifferent to that subject.

Tim Winton's first Miles Franklin-winner, Shallows revolves around the ruthless commerce of whaling, and Queenie Cookson, who joins the fight to end it. Whales have always been the life-force of Angelus, a small town on the south coast of Western Australia. Their annual passing defines the rhythms of a life where little changes, and the town depends on their carcasses. So when the battle begins on the beaches outside their town, and when Queenie Cookson, a local girl, joins the Greenies to make amends for the crimes of her whaling ancestors, it can only throw everything into chaos. 'Shallows is that rare thing, not historical fiction, but fiction which brings the history of a place to life . . . a major work of Australia literature.' Washington Post 'A profound and inspiring work of fiction.' The Age 'This is dazzling, dazzling. It makes the heart pound.' Los Angeles Times 'Shallows is more than a passionate meditation on the tragedy of whaling; it is in some ways a minimalist Moby Dick, a questioning of the ways of God to man and of man to God.' Sydney Morning Herald