Publisher Description

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.This edition also includes an Afterword by film critic, David Stratton.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.

Notes

The classic Australian novel from 1961 about one man's journey into an alcoholic, sexual and spiritual nightmare. With an introduction by Peter Temple, it was adapted into a film in 1971.

Author Biography

Kenneth Cook was born in Sydney. Wake in Fright, which drew on his time as a journalist in Broken Hill, was first published in 1961 when Cook was thirty-two. It was published in England and America, translated into several languages, and a prescribed text in schools. Cook wrote twenty-one books in a variety of genres, and was well known in film circles as a scriptwriter and independent film-maker. He died in 1987 at the age of fifty-seven

Review

'A true dark classic of Australian literature.' - J. M. Coetzee

Competing Titles

Truth Peter Temple The Broken Shore Peter Temple Picnic at Hanging Rock Joan Lindsay

Description for Sales People

Published (1961) in the UK and US, was translated into several languages and used as a school text. The 1971 film with Chips Rafferty in his final appearance was re-mastested, and shown at Sydney's 2009 Film Festival. Peter Temple, who provides the introduction, is a Golden Dagger award-winning crime writer. Part of Text Publishing's Text Classics series showcasing Australian literature.

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