Wake In Fright

Introduction by Peter Temple.

The controller stood back. ‘Right,’ he said. ‘Spin ‘em!’ The man flipped the piece of wood and the coins spun up into the air above his head and dropped down on to the carpet. There was silence.

Wake in Fright tells the tale of John Grant’s journey into an alcoholic, sexual and spiritual nightmare. It is the original and the greatest outback horror story. Bundanyabba and its citizens will forever haunt its readers.

Wake in Fright was made into a film in 1971, arguably the greatest film ever made in Australia. It starred Donald Pleasence, Chips Rafferty, and Jack Thompson in his first screen role. Lost for many years, the restored film was re-released to acclaim in 2009.

Listen to Raffaele Caputo interview Ted Kotcheff for Senses of Cinema here.

www.textclassics.com.au

Praise for Wake In Fright:

‘A true dark classic of Australian literature.’

J. M. Coetzee

‘Wake in Fright deserves its status as a modern classic. Cook’s prose is masterful and the story is gripping from the first page to the last.’

M. J. Hyland

‘A classic novel which became a classic film. The Outback without the sentimental bulldust. Australia without the sugar coating.’

Robert Drewe

‘Wake in Fright is a classic of the ugly side of Menzies’ Australia, its brutality, its drunkenness, its anxiety to crush all sensibility. All of this is harrowingly reacorded —the destruction of a young soul fresh to Australia—in Kenneth Cook’s remarkable novel.’

Thomas Keneally