Tim Winton – författare

Winner of the Miles Franklin AwardCloudstreet is Tim Winton's epic family drama, a story of love and turmoil spanning decades.‘Magnificent’ – The New York Times‘Winton is just one of the best’ – IndependentNo. 1 Cloudstreet: a broken-down house on the wrong side of the tracks, a place teeming with memories, with shudders and shadows and spirits.From separate catastrophes, two families – the Pickles and the Lambs – flee to the city and find themselves thrown together, forced to start their lives afresh. As they roister and rankle, the place that began as a roof over their heads becomes a home for their hearts.Full of boisterous energy, joy and heartbreak, Tim Winton's vivid portrayal of the of the Australian landscape is nowhere more extraordinary than in this classic.‘Winton is a one-man band of genius’ – The Los Angeles TimesPart of the Picador Collection, a series showcasing the best of modern literature.

‘Exhilarating’ – Sunday Times‘Rapturous’ – Sunday Telegraph‘A remarkable tale of grace and danger’ – Financial TimesWhen paramedic Bruce Pike is called out to deal with another teenage adventure gone wrong, he knows better than anyone what happened and how. Thirty years before, that dead boy could have been him. Bruce remembers what it was like to be a risk-taking kid, to feel that thrill and that fear . . .Breath by Tim Winton is the story of Bruce and his best friend Loonie, and the surfing obsession that changed both of their lives. It is about the exhilaration of the sea and the waves, the treacherous addiction to risk, and the intoxicating power of forbidden love.Part of the Picador Collection, a series showcasing the best of modern literature.

Longlisted for The Climate Fiction Prize 2026One of The Guardian's best sci-fi books of the year.An epic post-apocalyptic thriller, perfect for fans of Station Eleven and The Road, from twice Booker-shortlisted author Tim Winton.'A hold-your-breath adventure . . . Juice will stab your conscience and break your heart’ - Emma Donoghue, author of RoomSurvival is only the beginning.Two fugitives, a man and a child, drive across a stony desert. As dawn breaks, they roll into an abandoned mine site. They’re exhausted, traumatized, desperate now. This is a forsaken place, but as a refuge it’s the most promising they’ve seen. The child peers at the field of desolation. The man thinks to himself, this could work.Problem is, they’re not alone . . .So begins a searing journey through a life where the challenge is not only to survive; it’s keeping your humanity if you do.'A blistering cli-fi epic' - The Guardian

Tim Winton brings the landscape to life in Shallows, a historical fiction novel about pride and loneliness.One hundred and fifty years after the establishment of land-based whaling in Australia, its last outpost is Angelus, a small town already struggling for survival. Long-dormant passions are awakened by the arrival of the conservationists, who threaten the town’s livelihood and disturb the fragile peace under which its inhabitants live.‘A moving and powerful elegy . . . Winton writes vividly, and with courage, about serious matters in a cynical world.’ –Observer

Tim Winton's That Eye, the Sky is a tale about a boy’s vision of the world beyond, and the blurry distinctions between the natural and supernatural.At twelve years old, Morton – Ort for short – is not quite a child, but not yet an adult; his isolated outback world is an intriguing combination of boyish innocence, adolescent confusion and burgeoning awareness. When his father is seriously injured in a car crash, however, that world is suddenly thrown into complete disarray and the whole family have to adjust.As Ort, his sister, mother and grandmother are struggling to come to terms with what has happened, a stranger appears in their midst. Preaching God’s word, Henry Warburton’s unexpected arrival seems eerily prescient, at a time when the family most need a helping hand, and Henry quickly makes himself indispensable. In fact, for Ort in particular, it is Henry’s presence, perhaps more even than his father’s accident, that brings the greatest change to his world.‘The great strength of the novel is in the way the grotesque contrasts and parallels in human life are spread out, examined and accepted.’ – Los Angeles Times

Winner of the Australian/Vogel Award for Best First Novel, Tim Winton's An Open Swimmer is a meditation on past and present, a story of madness and murder, and of the punishing yet redemptive qualities of both fire and water.A fishing trip marks the end of Jerra and Sean’s friendship, although once, when they were younger and more innocent, it would have seemed unbelievable that the bond between them – first forged by their fathers, and later sealed with their blood – could ever be broken. But growing up has meant growing apart, the differences between them widening, sharpening their teasing words into something crueller and less easy to forgive.‘Winton’s writing is a heady blend of muscular description, deep sentiment and metaphysics’ - Sunday Telegraph

Tim Winton delivers a truly spine-tingling thriller with In the Winter Dark.When a man dreams things from the past, you’d think he’d be able to rearrange them in new sequences to please himself. But no. In my dreams, it all happens as it happened, and I see it and be it again and again and the confusion never wears off.People drift to the valley called the Sink out of loneliness, hardship or an affinity with the land. It is an isolated place, with a swamp and an old white bridge and the forest encroaching from all sides. The solitude is tangible. But when a mysterious creature is suddenly on the loose, killing livestock and preying on everyone’s deepest fears, four inhabitants find themselves unexpectedly in one another’s company – with chilling results.‘Tim Winton’s raw and vibrant language makes the senses jump . . . concentrated, passionate, invigorating writing’ Independent on Sunday‘A major work by anyone’s standards . . . mysterious, painful and beautiful’ Washington Post

In Scission, Tim Winton’s first collection of short stories, the world he paints is often harsh and disturbing, inhabited by isolated, unforgiving characters. It is a world at once familiar, filled with the trappings of home and family, and yet also strangely twisted; a world where casual brutality and unexpected death are never far from the surface. Evident in a young girl’s violent temper once the eggs she has so jealously guarded finally hatch, or in the careless indifference of the woman stepping over a soldier’s spreadeagled body, Tim Winton’s world is a place where dysfunction and disorder constantly threaten the equilibrium. But there is compassion and beauty there too – whether it’s in the brush of a father’s hand against his young son’s cheek, or the neighbours who wait patiently to celebrate the arrival of a new baby.‘Tim Winton is the real thing: a writer who can photograph a thought and pluck out the beat of a soul on a washing line.’ – Scotland on Sunday

In these extraordinary tales about ordinary people from ordinary places, Tim Winton describes turnings of all kinds: second thoughts, changes of heart, nasty surprises, slow awakenings, abrupt transitions. The seventeen stories overlap to paint a convincing and cohesive picture of a world where people struggle against the terrible weight of their past and challenge the lives they have made for themselves.In The Turning Tim Winton gives us seventeen exquisite overlapping tales of second thoughts and mid-life regret – extraordinary stories of ordinary people from ordinary places. 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.

One of The Guardian's best sci-fi books of the year.An edge-of-your-seat, post-apocalyptic thriller. Perfect for fans of The Last of Us, Station Eleven and The Road, from twice Booker-shortlisted author Tim Winton.'Will stab your conscience and break your heart’ – Emma Donoghue'A blistering cli-fi epic' – The GuardianSurvival is only the beginning.Two fugitives, a man and a child, drive across a stony desert. As dawn breaks, they roll into an abandoned mine site. They’re exhausted, traumatized, desperate now, and this is a forsaken place, but as a refuge it’s the most promising they’ve seen. The child peers at the field of desolation. The man thinks to himself, this could work.Problem is, they’re not alone . . .So begins a searing journey through a life where the challenge is not only to survive; it’s keeping your humanity if you do.

Shortlisted for the Booker Prize‘Compelling’ – The Independent‘Beautiful’ – The Sunday TelegraphGeorgie Jutland is a mess. At forty, with her career in ruins, she finds herself stranded with a man she doesn’t love and two kids whose dead mother she can never replace. She spends her days in isolated tedium and her nights in a blur of vodka and self-recrimination.Until, early one morning, she sees a shadow drifting up the beach below her house. It is Luther Fox, an outcast, a man on the run from his own past. And now here he is stepping into Georgie’s life. He brings hope, maybe even love, but also danger . . .Part of the Picador Collection, a series showcasing the best of modern literature.

**Soon to be a movie starring Brad Pitt**Shortlisted for the Booker Prize'Unforgettable' - The Observer'A magnificently readable novel' - Sunday Telegraph'Makes the senses jump. Concentrated, passionate, invigorating' - IndependentFred Scully is determined to carve a new life for himself and his young family in Ireland. For months he has laboured alone to make their dilapidated cottage habitable, and now his wife and child are coming to meet him: this will be their fresh start.But when he arrives at the airport to collect them, only his small daughter steps off the plane . . .So begins Tim Winton's The Riders, the story of Scully’s desperate journey across Europe, trying to track down the wife he comes to realize he didn’t know.Part of the Picador Collection, a series showcasing the best of modern literature.

How do we keep going in a burning world? Songs from the Firefront is a vital and moving memoir in essays from Tim Winton, twice Booker Prize-shortlisted author of Cloudstreet and The Riders.A memoir in essays, Songs from the Firefront is a book about the sacred fragility of existence. Deeply personal, brimming with anger and humour and love – for family, for the beautiful, brutal Australian landscape – Tim Winton's writing invites you into the world of one of our greatest living writers.Here he admits to stupidity alone in a vast canyon, paddle boards out to sea to visit the local dugong population, and tells the horror and sadness of watching as his neighbourhood is lost to bush fires. He tells the story of how he became friends with Helen Garner, the travelling that allowed him to write Cloudstreet, and about the act of unconditional love a father might agree to after his beloved daughter has delivered her child.From memories of his own childhood to what he sees in his grandchildren's future, Songs from the Firefront is a profound book about the world we live in and what we can hope to pass on. It’s a call for solidarity and a testament to the deep joys and sorrows of family life.Praise for Tim Winton: 'Winton is just one of the best' - Independent'Winton is a masterful storyteller with an enormous heart' - Mariella Frostrup'He is a novelist, a great one, because against all evidence and odds, he reminds us what it is to be human, and reminds us to be proud of our humanity . . . Winton is a one-man band of genius' - Los Angeles Times'Tin Winton is the real thing: a writer who can photograph a thought and pluck out the beat of a soul on a washing line' - Scotland on Sunday'To read Winton is to be reminded not just of the possibilities of fiction but of the human heart' - The Times

On childhood holidays to the western coast, Tim Winton’s days followed a joyous rhythm. In the mornings, the sun and surf kept him outside, in the water. In the afternoons, as the horizon wobbled with mirages and the wind came in from the ocean, he was driven inside, to books. In the ‘simple, peculiar shack’ that his family borrowed each year there was a small library: a room with four walls of books, a world unto itself.Land's Edge: A Coastal Memoir is a beautiful delicate memoir in which Winton writes about his obsession with what happens where the water meets the shore – about diving, dunes, beachcombing – and the sense of being on the precarious, wondrous edge of things that haunts his novels. It is a book about the ebb and flow that became a way of life, and that shaped one of our finest writers.‘Both a serial romantic and a truly gifted novelist’ - Mariella Frostrup, Mail on Sunday.

'I grew up on the world's largest island.'From his childhood, Tim Winton's relationship with the landscape around him – Australia's swamps and bush, rockpools, seacaves and scrub – has been as vital as any other connection. Whether camping in hidden inlets, walking in the high rocky desert fringe, or diving at Ningaloo Reef, Winton has felt the place seep into him – its rhythms, its dangers, its strange sustenance.Island Home is the story of how that relationship with the landscape came to be. Charged with love for the huge, besieging force of Australia's wild spaces, this book is a passionate call for their conservation, a memoir that urges us all to feel the ground beneath our feet. Tim Winton's Land's Edge: A Coastal Memoir, is also available.

Eclectic and impassioned, a collection that affirms the power of the written word.' – ObserverThe Boy Behind the Curtain is a portrait of a life, a place and a man. In this deeply personal collection of true stories and essays Tim Winton shows how moments from his childhood and life growing up have shaped his views on class, faith, fundamentalism, the environment, and – most pressingly – how all his experiences have made him a writer. From unexpected links between car crashes and faith, surfing and writing, to the story of his upbringing in the changing Australian landscape, The Boy Behind the Curtain is an impassioned, funny, joyous, astonishing collection of memories, and Winton's most personal book to date.

Fierce and lyrical, The Shepherd's Hut by Tim Winton is a story of survival, solitude and unlikely friendship. Most of all it is about what it takes to keep hope alive in a parched and brutal world.For years Jaxie Clackton has dreaded going home. His beloved mum is dead, and he wishes his dad was too, until one terrible moment leaves his life stripped to nothing. No one ever told Jaxie Clackton to be careful what he wishes for.And so Jaxie runs. There’s just one person in the world who understands him, but to reach her he’ll have to cross the vast saltlands of Western Australia. It is a place that harbours criminals and threatens to kill those who haven't reckoned with its hot, waterless vastness. This is a journey only a dreamer – or a fugitive – would attempt.'A page-turning heartbreaker' – Emma Donoghue, author of Room.

Fierce and lyrical, The Shepherd's Hut by Tim Winton is a story of survival, solitude and unlikely friendship. Most of all it is about what it takes to keep hope alive in a parched and brutal world.For years Jaxie Clackton has dreaded going home. His beloved mum is dead, and he wishes his dad was too, until one terrible moment leaves his life stripped to nothing. No one ever told Jaxie Clackton to be careful what he wishes for.And so Jaxie runs. There’s just one person in the world who understands him, but to reach her he’ll have to cross the vast saltlands of Western Australia. It is a place that harbours criminals and threatens to kill those who haven't reckoned with its hot, waterless vastness. This is a journey only a dreamer – or a fugitive – would attempt.