New Tim Winton novel due in October 2013.

Huge news this afternoon with the announcement that a new novel by Tim Winton will be published on 14 October 2013.

“I’m delighted to be able to announce that on October 14 this year we will be publishing a new novel by Tim Winton, his first since the Miles Franklin Award-winning Breath, ” Ben Ball, Publishing Director, Penguin Books Australia revealed today.

“Each new work from Tim is a major event in Australian publishing and a privilege to be involved with. Eyrie is one of the very few books I’ve ever read that can genuinely be said to change the way you look at the world. It goes straight at the big questions, and like the greatest contemporary novels, expands its readers’ understanding of what it’s like to be alive now.”

Eyrie tells the story of Tom Keely, a man who’s lost his bearings in middle age and is now holed up in a flat at the top of a grim highrise, looking down on the world he’s fallen out of love with. He’s cut himself off, until one day he runs into some neighbours: a woman he used to know when they were kids, and her introverted young boy. The encounter shakes him up in a way he doesn’t understand. Despite himself, Keely lets them in.

What follows is a heart-stopping, groundbreaking novel for our times – funny, confronting, exhilarating and haunting – populated by unforgettable characters. It asks how, in an impossibly compromised world, we can ever hope to do the right thing.

Tim Winton continues to cast a huge shadow across the Australian literary landscape. Earlier this year he was voted runner up in Booktopia’s search for Australia’s Favourite Novelist. The results can be seen here.

His novel Cloudstreet was voted Australia’s Favourite Novel in a poll run by Booktopia in 2010, click here for all the details.

You can also see Tim Winton’s author page at Booktopia, with all his books, bibliography and a profile of the celebrated novelist.

Order Tim’s new novel Eyrie here