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The Turning  By  cover art

The Turning

By: Tim Winton
Narrated by: Humphrey Bower,Caroline Lee
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Publisher's Summary

2007 Audie Award finalist. From the internationally acclaimed and best-selling author of Dirt Music comes an outstanding work of fiction that will resonate with readers everywhere.

Here are turnings of all kinds - changes of heart, nasty surprises, slow awakenings, sudden detours - where people struggle against the terrible weight of the past and challenge the lives they've made for themselves. Beautifully crafted, and as tender as they are confronting, these elegiac stories examine the darkness and frailty of ordinary people and celebrate the moments when the light shines through.

©2004 Tim Winton (P)2005 Bolinda Publishing Pty Ltd.

Critic Reviews

"Plot and prose combine to create what might just come close to being the perfect Australian novel." ( Herald Sun)

What listeners say about The Turning

Average Customer Ratings
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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

It just got better and better

This book is less a collection of short stories and more a series of glimpses into the events that changed the nature of a small seaside town during the 1970s. The glimpses are presented through the eyes of different characters, all at varying points of time and each one gradually adds to the picture. Just like a jigsaw. Initially, just like a jigsaw, the pieces seem only vaguely connected and some don't seem to fit at all. Then at the half way point it all starts coming together. This gradual revelation of major plot developments from different points of view is very gripping and Tim Wintons wonderful frank and beautiful descriptive style keep the book flowing. My only gripe is that there is one story theme that really does seem to be a jigsaw piece from another box and I really want to know what happened.

6 people found this helpful

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Audible should have mentioned that...

The words or description “a collection of vaguely interlinked short stories “ without a convergence point, which is what this beautifully written, highly evocative and scenic book is, would have been a great help before buying it, the author takes you on a 10 hour journey to nowhere in particular ... unless I completely missed the point, I’m a little peeved by pointlessness in any quite enjoyable book.

2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

The Turning

True Tim Winton stuff, real ozzie and down right honest, great for travelling with.

2 people found this helpful

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  • Can't_live_without_books
  • 12-02-22

Second time even better…

So good I listen led twice. The first time I didn’t fully appreciate how all the stories related to each other. The second time it was even better.

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  • ANNABEL
  • 09-11-22

Another wonderful Tim Winton novel

This was my fourth Tim Winton audio book and it was as wonderful as the other three.
So cleverly put together, it seems like short stories at first but they’re all interconnected and relevant to each other. It’s just beautiful, sad and thought provoking. I love the musical interlude between each chapter.
The reader is faultless to my ears, perfect reading for the content.

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  • Del.
  • 02-05-19

#TheTurning

as always with a pen in his hand, the iconic writer creates a taste of Australian life and brings his characters to the front.

utterly addictive.

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  • Joseph Di Stefano
  • 12-06-15

A real feast from Winton

There is something here which Winton has not been able to capture in his later books. That sense of loss, longing, of regret that somehow life has gone its own path when you thought you owned it all.

3 people found this helpful

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  • Amanda
  • 09-01-15

Enjoyable...great human characters.

Wonderfully narrated..saw the movie first, reading the book made me appreciate it so much more.

2 people found this helpful

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  • Shane
  • 08-04-18

confused

it may of just been me. but I've listened to it 3 times and I'm not to sure what its about or who is who or what Is going on.

1 person found this helpful

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  • Benjamin Bradford
  • 01-12-23

Amazing book and performance ruined by bad editing

the chapter run into each other with no rhyme or reason where the skip points are. it could be made perfect with maby a good hour of work that was probably already done when it was put onto cd.

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  • peter
  • 12-01-22

Great book, not so good narration

Amazing book. But the narrating was average, and the production was hopeless. Several times a story would finish and another start within a few seconds. Stories don’t start at the beginning of new tracks/chapters. There’s music between some stories but not others, and even then they manage to cut the music off before it’s finished. Like I said, great book, amazing writing. But they really screwed up transferring this to Audible.

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  • Anonymous User
  • 07-12-20

Brilliant stories, dreadful audio editing

These wonderful stories are ruined in the telling buy some really thoughtless audio editing. The chapter divisions mean nothing — new stories usually start two seconds after old ones have finished, mid ‘chapter’, leaving no time to adjust. Sometimes there is a musical interlude, usually not. It would’ve been so easy to get this right. One chapter, one story. Not rocket science.

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  • Kindle Customer
  • 08-19-18

boring as bats**t

impossible to get through, performers were brilliant considering their nausea-inducing material, well done to them for keeping me listening for the first 4 hours. BRAVO

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  • Veronica Germann
  • 06-05-18

Language put me off

Could not finish it! Blasphemy is not a necessary addition to the story. Swearing also!