Endnotes: Dirt Music (2001)
It seems Australian novelist Tim Winton is the flavour of the week, speaking to ABC News Online yesterday and telling The 7:30 Report last night about his new novel, Breath.

So, Articulate decided a Winton-themed Endnotes was in order, and what better book to choose than the multi-award-winning Dirt Music?

Winton must have been relieved to finally finish the novel - his eighth - because it took him more than seven years to write.

In 2004, he told Enough Rope's Andrew Denton that when he was approaching the deadline for the finished manuscript he suddenly faced a literary crisis.

They'd advertised it, they had a name, it had a price and it was due in a few months' time, and I thought, "Oh, man - people are gonna lose their jobs! Maybe I should just let it go." ... And I got up at 2:00 in the morning and thought, "No, I've got to start again." I worked for about 20 hours. I rode down to the office in the dark, I sharpened up 20 or 40 - I forget how many pencils - and I just started again from scratch ... I rewrote it in 55 days and nights.

Whatever changes he made to the manuscript paid off; in 2001 the novel was shortlisted for the Booker Prize and in 2002, it won the Miles Franklin Literary Award, two WA Premier's Awards, the NSW Premier's Literary Award and several other consumer awards.

The story follows the relationship between Georgie Jutland - an aimless, semi-alcoholic stepmother - and Luther Fox, a seafood poacher. Winton says he grew up in a town similar to that in the novel, and that he's "all of the characters" in some ways.

The book's title is explained by Luther Fox when he says dirt music is "Anythin you could play on a verandah. You know, without electricity".

And Winton came up with his own mix of dirt music and made a soundtrack of sorts to accompany the novel. The two-disc set includes classical and bluegrass tunes.

A film based on the book and directed by Aussie Phillip Noyce - starring Rachel Weisz as Georgie Jutland and Colin Farrell as Luther Fox - is due in cinemas in 2009.

Features include:2.35:1 Anamorphic Widescreen
English and French DD5.1 Surround
English SDH, French and Spanish subtitles
Deleted Scenes
Extended Scenes
Gag Reel
When In Bruges
Strange Bruges
A Boat Trip Around Bruges
F**king Bruges

In this critically acclaimed debut novel, the aftermath of war in all its power is revealed in the lives of survivors and their loved ones. Mark, a young war photographer, returns to New York after being injured in a brush fire. Shell-shocked, torn apart by grief and guilt, he finds that his experiences have created a gulf between himself and his loved ones. The first to notice is his girlfriend, Elena, who grows increasingly alarmed as his condition continues to deteriorate. She is the most surprised when her grandfather, Joaquin, the last person from whom Elena wants to accept help, turns out to be the one to understand Mark's trauma. The two men — bearers of grievously deep secrets — forge an extraordinary relationship that will ultimately lead to life-altering revelations.
This stunning novel is informed by Scott Anderson's experiences reporting on combat around the globe. Triage introduces a major new voice in American fiction.