Australian author Tim Winton has had a life that few ever dream of. He details those experiences in The Boy Behind the Curtain, which was published in 2016 and chronicles his life from birth to the present day—and everything in between. Specifically, Winton explores the events that significantly shaped his life, including his father's accident while working as a police officer and Winton becoming a father himself. There are twenty-two separate stories in Winton's memoir, sixteen of which had been previously published before The Boy Behind the Curtain. Winton connects those events to the man that he has become today, including his membership in the Mormon church and his career as a novelist and writer.
Despite being infused with Australian culture and the experiences of a distinctly Australian man, The Boy Behind the Curtain was a hit around the world. The Australian media's reviews of the novel were distinctly positive. In his review for The Australian, Ashley Hay wrote that "The Boy Behind the Curtain is a beautiful object, with clear space around many of its chapters, as if you might want to pause, or ease them apart to hand on to your friends." British author and reviewer Hannah Beckerman of The Guardian also loved the memoir. In her review of the novel, Beckerman called the collection "eclectic" and "impassioned." She also called it Winton's "personal best."
