Review on Julia Leigh’s - the Hunter

In the “Hunter” by Julia Leigh a man goes into the wilderness to hunt the mysterious Tasmanian tiger. The story is about the inexplicable thylacine and it is set in the wilderness of Tasmania. The story is told in third person, and it is in present tense it is a simple story. Leigh's central character, Martin Davis is sent to Tasmania to harvest a rare and elusive species he is hired by a pharmaceutical company to hunt the last thylacine cat, an animal many believe to be extinct. His journey brings into his life three people he doesn't want to care for, but does when they are rudely taken from him, he becomes even more absorbed in his goal. Readers can never be sure whether Martin or the thylacine is really the hunter. The most significant relationship in the novel exists between Martin and the thylacine. He pursues and tempts her like a lover. During certain parts of the novel I became unsure of whether Martin had actually seen the cat or if he was going crazy, imagining shadows and sounds in his desperate loneliness. When Martin finally closes in on his target, it is clear that he is the only one who understands this creature and will succeed where other hunters have failed. The stories central idea is about what happens when a man is lonely, broken and vicious as he goes deep in the Tasmanian darkness to hunt a prized creature the main question that was going through my head as I was reading it was what will the conclusion be and who, ultimately, is the