May you dream of the devil and wake in fright.

John Grant knows he's in hell. What he doesn't know is how to escape. A young school teacher, Grant is returning to Sydney for the holidays, but must spend a night in an outback mining town on the way. He is introduced to the illegal two-up gambling ring and quickly loses all his money. In the company of some hard-bitten and disturbing locals he is drawn into a frightening spiral of alcohol and drugs that takes him to the darkest depths of the male psyche.

Forty years since it first appeared this novel remains fresh, compelling and utterly gripping. With an introduction by Peter Temple, and an afterword by acclaimed film critic David Stratton, this edition celebrates the re-release of the film adaptation, a cinematic classic, digitally restored and returned to the big screen in 2009.

'Cook writes astonishingly well, with a fierce economy and a frightening power of visualization.' New York Times