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Spud - Learning to Fly
Spud - Learning to Fly
Jan 16, 2026 1:51 AM

Author:John van de Ruit

Spud - Learning to Fly

Spud Milton (practically a man in most areas) is hoping for a smooth ride as he returns to boarding school as a senior. But instead he finds his vindictive arch-enemy is back to taunt him and a garrulous new boy has taken residence in his dorm, along with the regular inmates and misfits he calls friends. Spud's world has never felt more uncertain as he attempts to master Shakespeare, girls, religion and the meaning of life.

Once again, armed only with his wits and his diary, Spud invites us on a hilarious journey deep into the sublime and ridiculous world of being a teenager.

Reviews

An addictive read... Loaded is a must for your suitcase

—— Stylist

Loaded is a high-octane, drug- and sex-fuelled romp through 24 hours in the life of Ari, a 19-year-old Greek-Australian gay man living on the margins of society. ... there is such a remarkable energy about Ari's narrative in Loaded, and so much self-aware humour and pathos, that it is utterly absorbing, and reminiscent in that respect of such debut novels as Bret Easton Ellis's Less Than Zero or Irvine Welsh's Trainspotting. Loaded is a glorious, almighty "fuck you" to Australian society, a primal howl of angst and anguish.

—— Doug Johnstone , Independent on Sunday

Praise for The Slap: Nothing short of a tour de force. Tsiolkas outs a microscope to family life and presents us with a vision both of unflinching honesty and great tenderness. Here is a novel of immense power and scope, reminiscent of Jonathan Franzen's The Corrections and Don De Lillo's Underworld

—— Colm Toibin

A fantastic, slam-bang-overdrive, supersurrealistic, comic-spooky whirl through a tomorrow that is already happening. Stephenson is intelligent, perceptive, hip

—— Timothy Leary

Like a Pynchon novel with the brakes removed

—— Washington Post

A fun read, the novel's charm lies in its quirky humour

—— Elizabeth Buchan , The Sunday Times

This is poignant, quirky and delightfully original

—— Woman & Home

Confirms that she's a writer to watch

—— Bella

A delightful tale

—— Good Housekeeping

This is an assured second novel - and wonderful company for that long-overdue summer trip

—— Press Assocation

Imaginative and transporting, but entirely unfussy and unsentimental, the novel is written with a glint in the eye that gives it that extra bit of wind beneath its wings

—— Nicola Barr , Guardian
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