On The Java Ridge

Description

On the Java Ridge, skipper Isi Natoli and a group of Australian surf tourists are anchored off the Indonesian island of Dana. In the Canberra office of Cassius Calvert, Minister for Border Integrity, a federal election looms and a hardline new policy on asylum-seekers is being rolled out. Not far from Dana, the Takalar is having engine trouble. Among the passengers on board fleeing from persecution are Roya and her mother, and Roya's unborn sister. The storm now closing in on the Takalar and the Java Ridge will mean catastrophe for them all.

Jock Serong's novels have received the Ned Kelly Award for First Fiction, the Colin Roderick Award and the inaugural Staunch Prize (UK). He lives with his family on Victoria's far west coast.

'Jock Serong creates a sense of foreboding from the very start of his third novel, and then constantly ratchets up the tension with a keen sense of pacing.' * Books + Publishing * 'With this book, Serong cements his growing reputation as the thinking person's adventure writer. On the Java Ridge is such a strong piece of writing on so many levels. Andrew Bolt would hate it!' * Readings * 'Blow me down if I didn't hang on every word.' -- Clare Wright * Weekend Australia * 'Expertly written, vast in scope...A compelling literary political thriller and a must-read commentary on the Australian political environment and its treatment of refugees.' * Better Read Than Dead * 'This is the mastery of Serong's novel, understanding that fictional dystopias are at their most profound when they take the everyday and tilt it towards the darkness...it is a deeply considered novel that steers us to the logical conclusion of an entrenched system rooted equally in brutality and silence.' * Monthly * 'Terrifying, compelling.' * Australian Book Review * 'You might want to clear the decks before you start Jock Serong's third thriller, because the odds are you won't be able to put it down.' * SA Weekend * 'The best surf-related fiction I have read in a long, long time, possibly ever-Jock Serong's riveting On the Java Ridge.' * Swell Net * 'The rescue and the scenes that follow it are the real heart of the book, and they are exceptional. Serong invests the chaos and confusion of the wreck and its bloody aftermath with a visceral power that makes for confronting but exhilarating reading.' * Australian * 'Taut and impressive.' * Age * 'Serong exhibits impressive control, leaping between three vastly different viewpoints and delivering a fevered crescendo as compassion competes with political survival.' * NZ Listener * 'On the Java Ridge cements Serong's place as one of Australia's most innovative and ambitious crime writers.' * NZ Listener * 'The author's knowledge of the sea, weather, boats and Australia's political disdain for modern day immigrants is described with fierce anger and deep compassion.' * The Staunch Prize *