When I love a book, then I am compelling to force encourage others to read it. And so it went with Tim Winton’s The Turning. I convinced my husband to read this collection of short stories, and then my father, and then my brother … and so on, and so forth.
If you’ve never lived in Australia, you can be forgiven for having never heard of Tim Winton. But, really, he is way better than Vegemite sandwiches. Trust me. He’s written 9 novels, and I’ve read them all. He’s that good. (And besides, Vegemite is awful. Bleh.)
The Turning is a collection of short stories. If you’re not a big lover of short stories (I kinda have to be in the mood for them too), you’ll like the fact that the stories overlap in unusual ways. Here’s how the Sydney Morning Herald describes this work:
“Each of these 17 stories is a self-contained whole — as all good short stories should be — yet the sequence reveals striking connections among seemingly disparate lives and experiences. The result is at times mysterious, moving and occasionally deeply unsettling … “
Anyhow, I’m no book reviewer … but you can read reviews here and here and here and here. But don’t bother with those – just take my word for it! (Hint: the Chapters.Indigo.ca has a copy for $15)
Happy reading!
Television’s Law & Order: Criminal Intent has a character named Capt. Danny Ross. But it turns out that this actor, Eric Bogosian, is actually the author of a criminally addictive novel: Perforated Heart. I was stuck in bed for two days with the flu and had randomly picked this book up from a library shelf, as I tend to do, and I just couldn’t put it down. 
