Review: CLOUDSTREET, Tim Winton - audio book

• this edition from Audible
  
• narrated by Peter Hosking
• unabridged, 12 hours 50 mins
• originally published in 1991
• recipient of a Miles Franklin Award in 1992 

Synopsis (Audible)

Two rural families flee to the city and find themselves sharing a great, breathing, shuddering joint called Cloudstreet, where they begin their lives from scratch. For 20 years, they roister and rankle, laugh and curse until the roof over their heads becomes a home for their hearts.

See Also Penguin Australia

From separate catastrophes two rural families flee to the city and find themselves sharing a great, breathing, shuddering joint called Cloudstreet, where they begin their lives again from scratch. For twenty years they roister and rankle, laugh and curse until the roof over their heads becomes a home for their hearts. 

Tim Winton's funny, sprawling saga is an epic novel of love and acceptance. Winner of the Miles Franklin and NBC Awards in Australia, Cloudstreet is a celebration of people, places and rhythms which has fuelled imaginations world-wide.  

My Take

My listening companion and I have thoroughly enjoyed listening to this Australian saga, made all the more enjoyable I suspect by Peter Hosking's wonderful narration. He has one of those iconic Australian voices, without being over the top.

It covers a period we both remember well, from World War II to the early 1960s, being the period we both grew up in. Although it is set in Perth, there are many resonances with Adelaide. My husband's family came from the bush to the city in a similar time frame and then lived in a "shared" house, while I came to the city for my education in the early 60s.

But it isn't history that dominates but what happens to these two families as they share life in Cloudstreet. The characters are marvellously drawn.

This is not my usual crime fiction diet, being an attempt to read a  little outside the genre occasionally. It is, I admit with shame, the first Tim Winton novel I remember reading, and certainly the first I have written a review of. I have joined the ranks of those who love Cloudstreet.

My rating: 5.0

You might enjoy the longer outline on Wikipedia. 

For overseas readers who would like a copy, it appears to be available through Amazon US in a variety of formats.