Blurb from the back cover:

"From separate catastrophes two rural families flee to the city and find themselves sharing a great, breathing shuddering joint called Cloudstreet, where they begin their lives again from scratch. For twenty years they roister and rankle, laough and curse until the roof over their heads becomes a home for their hearts.

Tim Winton's funny, sprawling saga is an epic novel of love and acceptance, Winner of the Miles Franklin and NBC Awards in Australia, Cloudstreet is a celebration of people, places and rhythms which has fueld imaginations world-wide."

This book is part of a trade and was sent to Noira on 6/3/07.

Arrived in the mail today. Thanks for trading books with me, Pipi! I'll comment as soon as I've read this.

First things first: I nearly couldn't believe that Australians really call women "sheilas". I thought it was just a Monty Python joke. :-)

This novel is about two poor families who end up sharing the same old house in Perth toward the end of WWII; the other family consists of an obsessive gambler father and an alcoholic mother and their more or less unhappy children, the other is defined by a hard-working, dominant mother and a boy with brain damage from a near-drowning accident. Little by little over the following two decades the two families get to know each other and get their lives more or less in order. In many ways it appears that Winton is writing about his own parents and grandparents, or at least bases the characters on them, but I don't really know how close to reality this novel may be.

This was an interesting read, even just because I don't know all that much about Australia, the people or the recent history. Despite the fairly tough content, it's a pretty funny novel as well. What I didn't terribly care for was the magical-realism thing Winton has going on in the background (because it felt a bit pasted on to me), but it didn't terribly bother me, either. Another thing that could have been done without is the confusing "narrator" that emerges from time to time.

Available to the next reader. Any takers?

Tarjosin tämän kirjaviestiketjun jatkoksi BC:n Finnish-Suomi -foorumilla 13.4.2007, ja thy hyväksyi tarjouksen. Kirja lähtee siis seuraavaksi Nurmijärvelle.

Oops... I forgot this was supposed to be in English (since the book is in English)! The point was that I submitted this as a Book Relay book on the Finnish-language forum at the BC website on April 13, and it was accepted by thy, so the book will next travel to Nurmijärvi in southern Finland.

Mailed to thy on April 14.

the book arrived yesterday, thanks Niora

9.7.2007 Intresting read about Australia

Reserved for Chania

Got this in mail today from thy, thanks so much! I'll read it as soon as I can!

Oh, I loved this story! I usually like most these "family sagas" but this was somehow even better than usual stuff. I enjoyed the characters and the story of their rough life. It took some time from me to get used to the dialogue (the way it was written).

Sending this to Kilona, who is at the moment living in Thailand!

I got this from Chania/Tiiti yesterday. I'm really looking forward of reading it :):)I like how Bookcrossing Postcrossers have found each other. I got a lovely postcard too with the book. Lucky me!