Cloudstreet took well over four years to write. And at the end of all that time, the manuscript was nearly lost. Tim Winto was returning to Australia from overseas with the one and only copy of the book in his hand-language. One of the problems about not using a computer is that you don't have a back-up copy. Winton managed to leave his 800-page manuscript on the bus to Rome airport. He didn't expect to see it again. After so long, he was returning to Australia empty-handed.
Waiting at Rome airport, however, and feeling miserable about the loss, Winton was approached by an umkempt stranger. He tried to get rid of him, thinking he might be a drug pusher. The stranger persisted. It was just as well that he did. The stranger had found the manuscript on the floor of the bus and gone looking for the author.
But for the kindness of that stranger, Winton's career might have followed a dramatically different path. The publication of the book in 1991 brought him to a new level of standing as a writer and a new level of popularity. The book sold out its first print run within a few days of publication and within two years had sold 60,000 copies in Australia.
Set firmly in a particular period of Australian history, from the mid-1940s to late '50s, "Cloudstreet" was made into an eight-hour - repeat, eight-hour! - Australian television miniseries in 2011. Although world events influence the story, the novel focuses on the two rural families, the Lambs and Pickles, who suffer separate catastrophes and flee to the city to pick up the pieces of their lives and start again. Brought together in the same house at No.1 Cloud Street, the Lambs and the Pickles share numerous tragedies and triumphs that draw them closer together, until the roof over their heads becomes a home for their hearts.
Go on! Buy the book and the DVD! They are a must-read and must-see!
