The Turning - by Tim Winton (Paperback)

About the Book

"The Turning" is a masterfully crafted collection of interlinked stories from the two-time Man Booker Prize nominee and author of "Dirt Music" and "The Riders."

Book Synopsis

The author of Dirt Music and The Riders captures the urgency of memory and the way an entire life can be shaped by one event from the past in this capsule of connected stories set on the coast of Western Australia.

Tim Winton's stunning collection of connected stories is about turnings of all kinds--changes of heart, slow awakenings, nasty surprises and accidents, sudden detours, resolves made or broken.

Brothers cease speaking to each other, husbands abandon wives and children, grown men are haunted by childhood fears. People struggle against the weight of their own history and try to reconcile themselves to their place in the world.

With extraordinary insight and tenderness, Winton explores the demons and frailties of ordinary people whose lives are not what they had hoped.

Review Quotes

"The Turning is finely crafted without being showy; sincere and moving without any authorial tug at the heartstrings. The best stories are nearly -- what's the word I'm looking for? -- immaculate."

-- Bookforum

"The writing is frankly brilliant...each story attains a sort of powerful beauty. Winton shows us how startling ordinary life is."

-- The Boston Globe

"These stories have an austerity as lofty as the weather on this wild coast, and as capable of surprises."

-- The New York Times Book Review

"Tim Winton tenderly extends his broken characters a delicate grace."

-- Entertainment Weekly

"What John Steinbeck was to California's Central Valley, Tim Winton is to the coastal region of Western Australia.... Winton's ability to arrange the written word appears effortless."

-- San Francisco Chronicle

About the Author

Tim Winton grew up and still lives in Western Australia. Considered the pre-eminent Australian author of his generation, Tim is the author of thirty books which have been widely translated and adapted for film, television, stage, opera, and radio. He has won the Miles Franklin, Australia's most prestigious award, four times and has twice been shortlisted for the Booker Prize, for The Riders and Dirt Music. Renowned for his role in the campaign to save Ningaloo Reef in 2000-2003, Tim's most recent work in the environmental space is the award-winning series Ningaloo Nyinggulu (2023), which he wrote and narrated. Voted a National Living Treasure by the National Trust in 1997, he is also an honorary fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities. In recognition of his contribution to literature and the environment, in 2023 he was made an Officer of the Order of Australia.