Novel
Cloudstreet
Tim Winton · 1991
Synopsis
In 1943, two poor families, each struck by a catastrophe, leave the countryside for Perth and share a large house, Cloudstreet. The Pickles, who own it, let half to the Lambs, who open a shop on the ground floor. The Lambs are hardworking and devout, and their faith is shaken by what happens to their son Fish; the Pickles, gamblers and drinkers, trust to luck. The novel follows the two families for twenty years, until 1963, under one roof.
Context
The novel appeared in May 1991 from McPhee Gribble. It received the Banjo Award from the National Book Council and the Western Australian fiction prize the same year. In 2003, members of the Australian Society of Authors chose it as their favourite Australian novel. It was staged in 1998 by Nick Enright and Justin Monjo, then adapted as a television mini-series in 2011 and as an opera, with music by George Palmer, in 2016.
Who it is for
A long novel in Australian English, comic and teeming, following twenty years in the lives of two families.
Prizes and reception
Miles Franklin Award 1992; Philip Hensher, cited by the publisher, counts it among the great masterpieces of world fiction.
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