jasper jones 16pt large print edition craig silvey

In the simmering summer where everything changes, Charlie learns why the truth of things is so hard to know, and even harder to hold in his heart. With his secret like a brick in his belly, Charlie is pushed and pulled by a town closing in on itself in fear and suspicion as he locks horns with his tempestuous mother falls nervously in love and battles to keep a lid on his zealous best friend, Jeffrey Lu.Īnd in vainly attempting to restore the parts that have been shaken loose, Charlie learns to discern the truth from the myth, and why white lies creep like a curse. Jasper takes him to his secret glade in the bush, and it's here that Charlie bears witness to Jasper's horrible discovery. So when Jasper begs for his help, Charlie eagerly steals into the night by his side, terribly afraid but desperate to impress. Rebellious, mixed-race and solitary, Jasper is a distant figure of danger and intrigue for Charlie. His visitor is Jasper Jones, an outcast in the regional mining town of Corrigan.

The Belvoir production of Jasper Jones in Sydney runs until February 7 and the Melbourne Theatre Company's version runs from August 1 to September 9.Late on a hot summer night in 1965, Charlie Bucktin, a precocious and bookish boy of thirteen, is startled by an urgent knock on the window of his sleep-out. 'I feel remarkably lucky and very, very grateful and I don't think anyone expected the story to have the kind of endurance that it's had and the kind of response from readers or audiences alike, I feel very, very lucky,' he said.Īfter its Sydney run, the Melbourne Theatre Company will put its own spin on the story in August. Silvey could never have predicted his story would have such a life behind the book. 'I think all of us can relate to that sort of loss of innocence, that moment in life where you start to see that the world is a little more grey, rather than black and white that you thought it was growing up,' Sarks said. So when Jasper begs for his help, Charlie steals into the night by his side, terrified but desperate to impress.

'Over the course of the play, it's a real coming-of-age tale where he learns about life and death and the capacity of humans to be cruel to one another.'ĭirector Anne-Louise Sarks said audiences could relate to the text. His visitor is Jasper Jones, an outcast in the mining town of Corrigan. 'He's a young bookish kid, very thoughtful, very innocent and in many ways the opposite of Jasper in that he comes from a very privileged, even though it's sort of working class, he comes from a background where he has a mum and a dad there and he's never been exposed to the true cruelty of the world,' Conroy said.

Tom Conroy stars as 14-year-old Charlie Bucktin, the narrator of the story. Craig Silvey's novel won a number of literary awards.

Jasper jones 16pt large print edition craig silvey