The multi-award winning Australian novel by Craig Silvey is a modern classic on the issues of racial tolerance.

Sometimes called Australia’s To Kill A Mockingbird, the multi-award-winning 2009 novel Jasper Jones is set to have a moment in 2016 with two productions of Kate Mulvany’s 2014 stage adaptation as well as a film release later this year.

Written by West Australian author Craig Silvey, the coming-of-age tale is set in the fictional rural town of Corrigan in 1965. 14-year-old Charlie Bucktin is caught up in a world of racism and family secrets as he tries to help his friend Jasper, an indigenous boy blamed for the town’s trouble. One hot summer’s night when Jasper discovers a terrible crime, he turns to Charlie for help.

“I think all of us can relate to that sort of loss of innocence, that moment in life where you start to see that the world is a little more grey, rather than the black and white that you thought it was growing up,” said Sydney director Anne-Louis Sarks in an interview with ABC. The Kate Mulvany adaptation, which is currently showing at Belvoir St Theatre before being staged by MTC...