Jasper Jones

Jasper Jones is a 2009 novel by Fremantle-based writer Craig Silvey. It has won and been shortlisted for several major awards, and was selected by the University of Canberra as its inaugural UC Book of the Year for 2013.

Protagonist Charlie Bucktin is a thirteen-year-old boy living in the fictitious rural town of Corrigan in Western Australia. On a summer evening in 1965, Charlie has an unexpected visit from fourteen-year-old Jasper Jones, an outcast in Corrigan due to his mixed White-Aboriginal heritage and rebellious lifestyle. Jasper begs for Charlie's help, and leads him to his private glade in the bush. Here Charlie is horrified to find the dead body of a young girl, Jasper's girlfriend Laura Wishart, battered and hanging from a tree. Jasper, aware that he is likely to be blamed for Laura's murder, convinces Charlie that they should hide the body, so they throw it into a nearby pond, weighted by a large rock.

A search for the missing girl is soon organised, focused on the idea that she may have run away. Jasper is interrogated roughly by the local police, but they soon release him. Meanwhile tension builds in the town, as parents fear more disappearances, and townspeople search for someone to blame.

Charlie spends his days with his best friend Jeffrey Lu, an Vietnamese boy who shares Charlie's love of intellectual banter, and deals stoically with the constant race-hate inflicted on him and his family. Jeffrey is passionate about cricket, but his attempts to join the Corrigan team are thwarted by the racism of the coach and other players. Eventually fortune goes his way, and he finds himself batting in a game against a rival town, watched by Charlie, who has befriended Eliza, Laura Wishart's younger sister. As Jeffrey wins the game on the last ball, Charlie and Eliza hold hands and share their first kiss.

Jasper believes that Laura's murderer is Mad Jack Lionel, a reclusive old man who is rumored to have done terrible things in the past. Jasper determines to confront Lionel, and together with Charlie, goes to his house. Lionel manages to defuse Jasper's aggression, and the truth comes out: Lionel is actually Jasper's grandfather, and when Jasper was a baby, Lionel had crashed his car while racing Jasper's mother to hospital, causing her death. The incident has left him broken, and ostracized by the townspeople.

Late one night, Eliza comes to Charlie's window. They go to Jasper's glade. Here Eliza tells Charlie what she knows of Laura's death: after a violent argument with her abusive father, Laura came looking for Jasper. Eliza followed her to the glade. Finding Jasper away, in despair Laura killed herself, and Eliza could not save her. Charlie then confesses that he and Jasper had thrown Laura's body into the pond.

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