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Cloudstreet

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Cloudstreet

By: Tim Winton
Narrated by: Peter Hosking
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About this listen

 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.©2002 Tim Winton (P)2008 Bolinda Publishing Pty Ltd Family Life Fiction Genre Fiction Literary Fiction Urban City Heartfelt

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Critic reviews

AudioFile Earphones Award, Exceptional Audio Performance, 2004
"One of those rare novels that warm the heart, as well as spark the imagination." ( Kirkus Reviews)
"Peter Hosking's performance is true to Winton's unsentimental exploration into humankind's ability to love and survive amid adversity....His characterizations, including an aboriginal ghost and a talking pig, are earthy, real, and frequently hilarious." ( AudioFile)
All stars
Most relevant  
Life affirming tale of the not so big dreams of little people, crammed together in a house that echoes with the pains of those who came before.

Brilliant story, beautiful delivery

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Gets better each time I listen to it; about every two years!thanks mr Winton

Real story telling

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Two families share one house over a period of 20 years. Various ailments are experienced, adultery, brain damage, anorexia, depression....but I just didn't understand the hallucinations or esp type mirages that kept happening with various members of the clans.

A bit confusing

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Strange book with a compulsive story, full of sadness but also of hope. For a none Australian like me the audiobook increases the accessibility and enjoyment of the book.

Weird and wonderful.

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This guy’s imagination should be heard by all . All the simplicity’s and hardships of individuals in two family’s 🍀

Beautiful

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Two families same but different. It is a brief comment on Australian social history. great world building.

Family Ties

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Would you listen to Cloudstreet again? Why?

Cloudstreet is probably the best audio book I've heard in the last 5 years of listening.

What other book might you compare Cloudstreet to, and why?

One Hundred Years of Solitude. Both books are family tales filled with the mystery and ordinariness of life, described in prose of the highest quality.

What about Peter Hosking’s performance did you like?

He manages to capture the uniqueness of each character's voice without strain or stress, to bring to life the world of 1950's Perth.

Did you have an emotional reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

Both.

Any additional comments?

Tim Winton might have felt, when he finished this book, that it is the book he was meant to write. It has a completeness and maturity about it that all great books achieve. Images from the tale come to mind long afterwards. The characters feel real and one comes to love them.

A great novel, beautifully read

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What a great read and so beautifully spoken by Peter Hosking
My listening companion for two weeks
Felt like knowing the two central families so well through the ‘stuff of daily life’ who’s stories fill it’s pages
Reading as our book of the month in our Quaker book group
Hope next month’s is as gripping

Enthralling

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If you could sum up Cloudstreet in three words, what would they be?

An Aussie beauty!

Who was your favorite character and why?

All of them because each character is like someone we already know

Which character – as performed by Peter Hosking – was your favourite?

Quick,

Did you have an emotional reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

This book made me laugh out loud many times and chuckle at the colloquial expressions so many times yet all of this was set against the Aussie battler making good where he could and taking it on the chin when he/she faced a set back.

Any additional comments?

Just great narration of this wildly amusing but poignant story.
As an Aussie living abroad for many years, I have missed the wonderful expressions which offer a rye smile or a real laugh.

Home Sick

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The only reasons I don't give this book five stars are (i) some annoying chapter and 'event' headers (when read out they come across like subtitles) and (ii) to English ears the narration is occasionally challenging. But the story and characters are both excellent. The story follows two working class families across 30 years of domestic life, set in Western Australia rather than perhaps better known places like Melbourne or Sydney. There are times when the modern reader wonders how the characters kept going - life was clearly pretty tough back then. But somehow the lust for life of the Austrlain personality enlivens every crisis and set-back. There are themes below the surface about fate, fortune/luck and whether you can 'cheat your destiny'. I read it on a flight to and while driving through New South Wales, which made it come to life even more. This is also regularly voted the most popular Australian contemporary novel.

A look back at what made Australia 'australian'

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