The Secret River - Hardcover

Grenville, Kate

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1841957976 ISBN 13: 9781841957975

Publisher: Canongate U.S., 2006

Synopsis

The Orange Prize-winning author Kate Grenville recalls her family's history in an astounding novel about the pioneers of New South Wales. Already a best seller in Australia, The Secret River is the story of Grenville's ancestors, who wrested a new life from the alien terrain of Australia and its native people. London, 1806. William Thornhill, a Thames bargeman, is deported to the New South Wales colony in what would become Australia. In this new world of convicts and charlatans, Thornhill tries to pull his family into a position of power and comfort. When he rounds a bend in the Hawkesbury River and sees a gentle slope of land, he becomes determined to make the place his own. But, as uninhabited as the island appears, Australia is full of native people, and they do not take kindly to Thornhill's theft of their home.

The Secret River is the tale of Thornhill's deep love for his small corner of the new world, and his slow realization that if he wants to settle there, he must ally himself with the most despicable of the white settlers, and to keep his family safe, he must permit terrifying cruelty to come to innocent people.

About this title

About the Author:

Kate Grenville is one of Australia's best-loved authors. Her works of fiction have won numerous awards both in Australia and internationally. The Idea of Perfection won the 2001 Orange Broadband Prize for Fiction and became a long-running bestseller. In 2006 The Secret River won the Commonwealth Writers' Prize and was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize. Searching For The Secret River, the story behind this novel, is also available from Canongate, alongside her first novel, Lilian's Story, and The Lieutenant. Kate Grenville lives in Sydney.

From AudioFile:

For contemporary Australians, a genealogical search might well lead back to the British prisoners, circa 1800, who were exiled to the no-man's-land of New South Wales. Orange Prize winner Grenville found out little about her own family, but the heritage she creates in this historical novel is both personal and believable. Audie Award winner Simon Vance narrates with only the slightest British accent. The moment he steps into dialogue, however, the characters come alive and distinct. These men were not murderers or hardened criminals, and Vance's ability to convey sensitivity behind the gruff exterior of their voices (or, in the case of a few, the lack of sensitivity) reaches refreshingly beyond the words on the printed page. R.R. © AudioFile 2007, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine

About this edition

• Publisher: Canongate U.S.
• Publication date: 2006
• ISBN 10: 1841957976
• ISBN 13: 9781841957975
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 352