Bootstrap

Jackson Sweeney is stewing in his tiny hometown, feeling stuck. He spends his days working at Al’s Takeaway and his nights at the local dive pub, scouting for a guy he hasn’t pashed yet. His childhood friend Marnie returns to Ginsborough on her family’s annual visit, but she’s reeling from a break-up and is determined to lie low. After all, nothing happens in this part of the world.

But then one night an odd-looking stranger shows up: he has long black hair, a leather trench coat and the improbable name of Bootstrap. What’s more, he says he’s here to see the night Jackson Sweeney becomes a hero.

Soon, Sweeney and Marnie find themselves swept up in an adventure they never could have dreamt of—with a fugitive on the run from the future.
Both a thrilling race against time and a witty contemporary love story, Bootstrap is the genre-bending new novel from the brilliant Georgina Young.

Georgina Young is a writer and designer from Melbourne. Her first novel, Loner, which was published in 2020, won the Text Prize, was commended by the CBCA as a notable book for older readers, and was shortlisted for a Prime Minister's Literary Award.

‘Cleverly written, in short sharp chapters, it captures the false bravado, the awkwardness, the misunderstandings, the inability to say how you feel: it is a snapshot of what life is like for so many late teens and 20-somethings, who are beset with anxiety, aimlessness, unable to move forward or move back.’ Prime Minister’s Literary Awards judges on Loner

‘Georgina Young made me squirm and swoon and sigh as I fell head over heels for the exquisite paradoxes of her protagonist. Lona wonders why she can never say exactly the thing she means—lucky for us, we have Young, and she articulates all those things with smarts and humour and grace. This is a book to push into the hands of everyone you know, especially those who ever had trouble knowing themselves.’ Kate Mildenhall on Loner