Winner, Colin Roderick Award, 2018
Winner, Staunch Book Prize, 2018
On the Java Ridge, skipper Isi Natoli and a group of Australian surf tourists are anchored off the Indonesian island of Dana. In the Canberra office of Cassius Calvert, Minister for Border Integrity, a federal election looms and a hardline new policy on asylum-seekers is being rolled out.
Not far from Dana, the Takalar is having engine trouble. Among the passengers on board fleeing from persecution are Roya and her mother, and Roya's unborn sister.
The storm now closing in on the Takalar and the Java Ridge will mean catastrophe for them all.
Jock Serong's first novel, Quota, won the 2015 Ned Kelly Award for Best First Fiction. The Rules of Backyard Cricket was shortlisted for the 2017 Victorian Premier's Award for Fiction, and was a finalist in the 2017 Mystery Writers of America Edgar Awards and the 2017 Indie Book Awards. On the Java Ridge won the Colin Roderick Award and the international Staunch Book Prize in 2018. Jock lives with his family on Victoria's far west coast.
'Terrifying, compelling.' Australian Book Review
'Taut and impressive.' Age
'You might want to clear the decks before you start Jock Serong's third thriller, because the odds are you won't be able to put it down.' SA Weekend
'With this book, Serong cements his growing reputation as the thinking person's adventure writer. On the Java Ridge is such a strong piece of writing on so many levels. Andrew Bolt would hate it!' Readings
'Expertly written, vast in scope...A compelling literary political thriller and a must-read commentary on the Australian political environment and its treatment of refugees.' Better Read Than Dead
'This is the mastery of Serong's novel, understanding that fictional dystopias are at their most profound when they take the everyday and tilt it towards the darkness...it is a deeply considered novel that steers us to the logical conclusion of an entrenched system rooted equally in brutality and silence.' Monthly
'The best surf-related fiction I have read in a long, long time, possibly ever—Jock Serong's riveting On the Java Ridge.' Swell Net
'On the Java Ridge cements Serong's place as one of Australia's most innovative and ambitious crime writers.' NZ Listener
'The rescue and the scenes that follow it are the real heart of the book, and they are exceptional. Serong invests the chaos and confusion of the wreck and its bloody aftermath with a visceral power that makes for confronting but exhilarating reading.' Australian
'Serong exhibits impressive control, leaping between three vastly different viewpoints and delivering a fevered crescendo as compassion competes with political survival.' NZ Listener
'Devastatingly brilliant...an emotionally grueling mix of high-octane action, life-and-death political maneuvering and, at its heart, an anguishing portrayal of worldwide refugee crises...Beautiful, mournful, infuriating and brimming with tension, On the Java Ridge is utterly incomparable.' Shelf Awareness
