CLOUDSTREET

With sensitivity and vision, novelist Tim Winton creates an Australian classic that takes the listener into the world of two wholly believable working-class families in post-WWII Perth. The Pickles family inherits, but cannot afford to keep, Cloudstreet, a rambling, ramshackled house--so they take in the Lambs as their boarders. The Pickles are an irreligious, indolent lot, while the Lambs are pious and hard-working. Peter Hosking’s performance is true to Winton’s unsentimental exploration into humankind’s ability to love and survive amid adversity. Hosking handles the mundane and the mystical with equal assurance. His characterizations, including an aboriginal ghost and a talking pig, are earthy, real, and frequently hilarious. Hosking makes the most of Winton’s honesty, wit, and original imagery. S.J.H. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2004, Portland, Maine [Published: OCT/ NOV 04]