Jackson Sweeney is stewing in his tiny hometown, feeling stuck. He spends his days working at Al’s Takeaway and his nights at the local dive pub, scouting for a guy he hasn’t pashed yet. His childhood friend Marnie returns to Ginsborough on her family’s annual visit, but she’s reeling from a break-up and is determined to lie low. After all, nothing happens in this part of the world.
But then one night an odd-looking stranger shows up: he has long black hair, a leather trench coat and the improbable name of Bootstrap. What’s more, he says he’s here to see the night Jackson Sweeney becomes a hero.
Soon, Sweeney and Marnie find themselves swept up in an adventure they never could have dreamt of—with a fugitive on the run from the future. Both a thrilling race against time and a witty contemporary love story, Bootstrap is the genre-bending new novel from the brilliant Georgina Young.
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‘Bootstrap is a wild, exhilarating ride of a book, from start to finish, bending and transcending genre and creating something powerfully original in the process. Georgina Young perfectly captures the language and attitude of rural Australia, and the tender core beneath rough-around-the-edges characters. This book is funny, witty and razor-sharp—a pure adrenaline rush!’
‘Cleverly written, in short sharp chapters, it captures the false bravado, the awkwardness, the misunderstandings, the inability to say how you feel: it is a snapshot of what life is like for so many late teens and 20-somethings, who are beset with anxiety, aimlessness, unable to move forward or move back.’
‘Reading Loner was like reading about a younger me: going to art school, dating the wrong people, living in my first sharehouse, making questionable hair decisions, fallouts with friends, going to pretentious hipster cafes, getting lost in Chadstone, waiting for the delayed Pakenham-line train, experiencing my first love and heartbreak, and worrying so much about seeming cool and unbothered. Loner is a convincing snapshot of what it is like to be a young artist and not knowing what the hell you want to do with the rest of your life.’
‘Georgina Young made me squirm and swoon and sigh as I fell head over heels for the exquisite paradoxes of her protagonist. Lona wonders why she can never say exactly the thing she means—lucky for us, we have Young, and she articulates all those things with smarts and humour and grace. This is a book to push into the hands of everyone you know, especially those who ever had trouble knowing themselves.’
