Author: Tim Winton
Genre: Austrlian fiction
Audience: Adult
Format: Audio book - Library
From Goodreads: Struggling to rebuild their lives after being touched by disaster, the Pickle family, who've inherited a big house called Cloudstreet in a suburb of Perth, take in the God-fearing Lambs as tenants. The Lambs have suffered their own catastrophes, and determined to survive, they open up a grocery on the ground floor. From 1944 to 1964, the shared experiences of the two overpopulated clans -- running the gamut from drunkenness, adultery, and death to resurrection, marriage, and birth -- bond them to each other and to the bustling, haunted house in ways no one could have anticipated.
What I thought: Being rather naughty, I am writing this review at work! (shhh, it’s quiet and I don’t think anyone I work with reads this blog!) The big advantage of doing this is that if I have left the audio book in the car (which I did!) I can grab a copy off the shelves to refer to while I write my review!
Having done so, I have discovered a bunch of comments on the back of the book that say so well what I feel about this book.
If you have not read Cloudstreet, your life is diminished. – Mem Fox
Cloudstreet shows an exquisite feel for the language, the smell, the very pulse of Australia. – Andrew Denton
I fell in love with that book and have been the most extraordinary Tim Winton fan ever since. - Judith Lucy
Reading it felt like coming home. It feels like looking through the plane window when you’re flying back in to the country. It really does. - Marieke Hardy
Every single word of these comments rings true for any Winton book as far as I am concerned. If you want to read an Australian author who captures Australia at its most pure, this is your man, and Cloudstreet is the book. And listening to it read aloud is about as perfect as it can get. Winton is pure manna for the mind and the soul. In the words of another famous Australian – do yourself a favour, go read a Tim Winton book.
Challenges: Aussie Author Challenge