The Others is the latest book from author Mark Brandi. One of Duffy's recommended lockdown reads.

Duffy’s recommended lockdown read!

From the bestselling author of WIMMERA and THE RIP comes The Others, an unforgettable novel that explores the darkness in our world with the light only a child can find.

I heard voices talking last night. I’ve never heard my father talk to someone else. Not that I can remember. I was in bed, and I heard my father’s voice first. He was talking to someone, and then I heard another man with a deep voice. The man got angry, I could tell, even though I couldn’t hear exactly what he was saying. Then my father said, ‘I’d kill you first.’

On his eleventh birthday, Jacob’s father gives him a diary. To write about things that happen. About what he and his father do on their farm. About the sheep, the crop, the fox and the dam. But Jacob knows some things should not be written down. Some things should not be remembered.

The only things he knows for sure are what his father has taught him. Sheltered, protected, isolated. But who is his father protecting him from? And how far will his father go to keep the world at bay? All too soon, Jacob will learn that, sometimes, people do the most terrible things.

The Others is available from Booktopia and all good bookstores

Duffy’s Thoughts On The Others

I’m a huge fan of Mark Brandi and thoroughly enjoyed The Rip and Wimmera and Brandi does not disappoint with The Others.

Jacob is a young boy who lives and works on an isolated smallholding with his father. He doesn’t have friends, his father is all he needs, and the strange, distant pair live off the land. Sometimes it’s some tough goat, but most of the time, it’s porridge. His days are spent working the land, until one day Jacob’s father gives him a diary to write down his thoughts, but he doesn’t write everything down, just in case his father sees the pages.

Brandi has a unique talent for creating young male characters who tug at your heartstrings. His small stories are told through the lens of deeply complex characters with many layers of flaws, trauma, conflict, love and loneliness.

The Others puts us square into the sparse, ramshackle farmstead and will have you either nervously waiting for Jacob’s father to return home or wishing he didn’t. Each page takes you deeper into the harsh landscape and into the lives of Jacob and his father, with a finale that will leave you with a book hangover for days.

Mark Brandi’s work really REALLY needs to picked up by Netflix!

Check out Duffy’s reviews on other Mark Brandi reads