The Eye of the Sheep

Meet Jimmy Flick. He’s not like other kids – he’s both too fast and too slow. He sees too much, and too little. Jimmy’s mother Paula is the only one who can manage him. She teaches him how to count sheep so that he can fall asleep. She holds him tight enough to stop his cells spinning. It is only Paula who can keep Jimmy out of his father’s way. But when Jimmy’s world falls apart, he has to navigate the unfathomable world on his own, and make things right.

2015 Miles Franklin Award Winner

Praise for The Eye of the Sheep

‘The power of this finely crafted novel lies in its raw, high-energy, coruscating language which is the world of young Jimmy Flick, who sees everything…The Eye of the Sheep is an extraordinary novel about love and anger, and how sometimes there is little between them.’
– Miles Franklin Literary Award 2015, judges’ report

‘Sofie Laguna has perfected the voice of a child. The Eye of the Sheep is a dark tale told with perfection.’
–  Culture Street

‘truthful and beautiful.’
–  Newcastle Herald

‘Jimmy is a tour de force of a character, brilliantly maintained…Laguna’s great skill is in conveying contradictory human depths.’
– Adelaide Advertiser

‘By getting inside Jimmy’s mind and showing what an amazing place it is, this book goes a long way towards explaining what a library of textbooks could not.’
– Sydney Morning Herald