Cloudstreet
Picador Classic
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4.0 • 13 Ratings
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- £5.99
Publisher Description
Winner of the Miles Franklin Award
‘Magnificent’ – The New York Times
‘Winton is just one of the best’ – Independent
Cloudstreet is Tim Winton's epic family drama, a story of love and turmoil spanning decades.
No. 1 Cloudstreet: a broken-down house on the wrong side of the tracks, a place teeming with memories, with shudders and shadows and spirits. From separate catastrophes, two families – the Pickles and the Lambs – flee to the city and find themselves thrown together, forced to start their lives afresh. As they roister and rankle, the place that began as a roof over their heads becomes a home for their hearts.
Full of boisterous energy, joy and heartbreak, Tim Winton's vivid portrayal of the of the Australian landscape is nowhere more extraordinary than in this classic.
‘Winton is a one-man band of genius’ – The Los Angeles Times
One of the many extraordinary books featured in the Picador Collection.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
``Luck don't change, love,'' observes Sam Pickles to his daughter Rose. ``It moves.'' Considerations of fate and love underlie Winton's ( Shallows ) wry novel, set in Western Australia, about two families thrown together in the years following WW II. Sam Pickles earns a modest living mining guano for nitrate until he loses his hand in an accident. Fortunately, the family inherits a rambling old house--the Cloudstreet of the title--in which they can live, although they still lack cash. The dilemma is resolved with the sudden arrival of the rigid, God-fearing Lamb family, whom the rather libertine Pickles take in as boarders. Following the quirky, deeply etched members of these families--``flamin whackos,'' in Quick Lamb's description--as they forge bonds and undergo travails, Winton explores the haphazard nature of human existence with a quietly focused ferocity. Featuring lyrical passages and rapid-fire, minimally punctuated dialogue, this satiric, affectionate family saga is tragic and hilarious--and often both at once. Winton shows himself a worthy successor to his countryman Martin Boyd, who portrayed the Anglo-Australian society of previous generations.
Customer Reviews
Cloudstreet
At first I wasn't certain that I would like this book, but it draws you in to the lives of these Australians as if you were not just a spectator, but a participant in the tale. I loved it and will re-read it many times I'm sure.