It is a family saga with characters that are unforgettable and the humour Winton uses to tell the story is no-nonsense and quintessentially Aussie. 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.”Ĭloudstreet is a fantastic reading experience that will stay with me for a long time (complete with interesting magical touches like an Aboriginal ghost and a talking pig). The Lambs have suffered their own catastrophes, and determined to survive, they open up a grocery on the ground floor. “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. One couple are hardworking God-fearing folks, and the other couple are licentious wastrels who depend on luck. The two couples who live in the house couldn’t be more different. In this case, it is a big rambling house which in itself becomes like a character in the novel. In the interview Winton says he often begins his novels by creating a place and then filling it with people. Thanks Conny! I really loved this earthy and epic Australian classic. Just after I’d listened to a podcast of Australian author Tim Winton being interviewed by CBC’s Eleanor Wachtel of Writers and Company, and thinking I’d really like to read one of his books one day, a friend and fellow book lover sent Cloudstreet my way.

Cloudstreet miniseries