Cloudstreet

By: Tim Winton

Narrated by: Peter Hosking

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

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)

An Aussie classic

Would you listen to Cloudstreet again? Why?

YES! it took a while to gel with the characters but once I felt them, it was hard to let them go at the end of the book.

What about Peter Hosking’s performance did you like?

The performance of the reader was good. He was easy to listen to and his voices were suitable and funny.

Dickens meets Gabriel Garcia Marquez

Winton's characters celebrate and suffer and Peter Hosking gives them voices that stay with you. This story is sad and hopeful full of details that puts you inside the head of each character. There are ghosts, talking pigs and a voice from beyond but it all seems real. It is a beautiful story of two complicated families. Listening to Peter's Australian accent and his singing of folk songs added a whole extra layer of joy. I loved this book and the reading.

Brilliant, original

Brilliant, original, writing full of vitality ….. extremely talented author (the novel should be read as well), but the narrator does an incredible job. Well done.

Magic for my city

I've lived in Perth most of my life and am almost ashamed it took me so long to read Cloudstreet. The story is astounding. I turned it over in my mind for days after finishing it. My only (very slight!) issue was that Peter Hosking is obviously an east coast man, his pronunciation was a little off at times and it would have been lovely to make use of more West Australian talent.

Brilliantly written epic-superbly narrated

This is a wonderful novel: vivid, entertaining, funny, poignant, and imaginative. Sometimes the wrier's literary gifts lead him to overwrite--he has such a limitless fund of metaphor at his disposal that he occasionally overeggs the pudding. But you can't blame him. I loved everything about the novel--from the overarching conception to the highly entertaining dialogs. The narration couldn't be improved upon--it's superb.