The Turning (35 page)

Daily Telegraph

‘Winton is a poet of baffled souls . . . Always a writer of crystalline prose, his lines of sinewy leanness achieve such clarity here that it seems one is reading line
after line of perfect music. His unbounded humanity and his sympathy for his characters descend on them like grace as they struggle to salvage their lives. To read him is to be reminded not just of
the possibilities of fiction but of the human heart’

The Times

‘Winton has not only captured the tragic significance and the sheer wonder of one man’s difficult adolescence but of a town and, by extension, a whole country.
Winton’s
Cloudstreet
is commonly considered the Great Australian Novel. “Big World”, which opens
The Turning
, could well be the great Australian short
story’

List

‘In
The Turning
, Tim Winton returns to the short-story format after a series of novels, and a triumphant return it is . . . A raw and urgent book, brimming with
danger . . . But there is nevertheless plenty of beauty in these haunting, finely written tales’

Literary Review

‘Tim Winton’s latest offering is a thrilling bundle of contradictions: a novel masquerading as a collection of short stories, an optimistic wallow in the doldrums
of middle age. Full of violence and despair, it is also tender and poetic . . . Enough to make first-time readers seek out Mr Winton’s earlier work and old hands re-read him all over
again’

The Economist

‘Because of Winton’s huge talent for atmospheric storytelling
The Turning
is potent and compelling’

Financial Times

‘A vividly imagined and poetically executed piece of work, intense, lyrical and moving. Even with two Booker-nominated novels to his credit, Winton is a writer who
continues to improve with each piece of work he publishes . . . it’s no exaggeration to compare Winton’s achievement in conjuring landscape, its magnificence and hefty, threatening
presence, to Hardy’s accomplishment in fashioning his Wessex or Emily Brontë her Yorkshire moors’

Independent on Sunday

‘Luminous . . . impressive . . . The novel gracefully peels away masks to reveal its characters’ vaulting ambitions, crippling insecurities and submerged
traumas’

Time Out

‘Captivating . . . The beauty of Winton’s work lies not in the hope to which some characters awaken, but in his skill at making grief palpable to readers who may be
unscathed by the agonies that his characters suffer . . . His stories artfully clarify life’s abrupt turns, but it is his prose that makes this work exceptional with its liveliness and
flow’

Observer

T
IM
W
INTON
was born in Perth in 1960. He is the author of over fifteen books, including novels, a
collection of stories, non-fiction and books for children. His first novel,
An Open Swimmer,
won the
Australian
/Vogel Award.
Cloudstreet
won the Banjo Award and the Miles
Franklin Award in Australia and the Deo Gloria Prize in England, and has been successfully adapted for the theatre. He has been shortlisted for the Booker Prize twice, for
The Riders
(1995)
and
Dirt Music
(2002).

Also by Tim Winton

NOVELS

An Open Swimmer

Shallows

That Eye, the Sky

In the Winter Dark

Cloudstreet

The Riders

Dirt Music

STORIES

Scission

Minimum of Two

First published 2004 by Picador
an imprint of Pan Macmillan Australia Pty Limited, Sydney

First published in Great Britain 2005 by Picador

First published in paperback 2006 by Picador

This electronic edition published 2011 by Picador
an imprint of Pan Macmillan, a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited
Pan Macmillan, 20 New Wharf Road, London N1 9RR
Basingstoke and Oxford
Associated companies throughout the world
www.panmacmillan.com

ISBN 978-0-330-52831-3 PDF
ISBN 978-0-330-52822-1 EPUB

Copyright © Tim Winton 2004

The right of Tim Winton to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

You may not copy, store, distribute, transmit, reproduce or otherwise make available this publication (or any part of it) in any form, or by any means (electronic, digital,
optical, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise), without the prior written permission of the publisher. Any person who does any unauthorized act in relation to this publication may be
liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.

A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

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