Cassie McCullough

It's a very, very special book.

It's so beautiful.

The moment I read it, I read it in a single sitting and I just devoured it.

It's so gorgeous.

And the scheme of it is essentially a 15-year-old boy called Charlie goes on a road trip with a racehorse that's going to be put out to pasture, put it that way, and he wants to save the horse.

And so he absconds with this horse called Lean on Pete.

And it's just the most beautiful, heartfelt, simply told, but intimate and rich and deep story.

It has a great deal of sophistication.

It's such an incredibly...

accurate portrayal of Americana.

I just love it to pieces.

I'd always wanted to write a novel with quite a naive voice.

Charlie, the narrator of Lean on Pete, just has such a disarmingly simple narrative voice, but the book lacks no sophistication for it.

It was something that gave me a great deal of inspiration when I

uh when i approached sam watson's voice in in honeybee uh it remains a really influential book for for me and i love it to pieces i think willie is just an incredible writer and probably underestimated to be honest with you i think he's one of the best american writers working today he came out for the sydney writers festival a few years back and i think everyone just fell in love with him

I'll give you one more, and there's some honourable mentions.

My one more is, again, probably a bit of an obscure choice, but I love this book.

It is devastating.

It is raw.

It's heartbreaking.