COMMONWEALTH OF THIEVES NP; The Improbable Birth of Australia

Keneally, Thomas

ISBN 10: 038551459X / ISBN 13: 9780385514590

Published by Nan A. Talese / Doubleday, New York London Toronto Sydney Auckland, 2006

Tall 8vo (9 1/2" x 6 1/2"), black quarter cloth with gold lettering on spine over copper boards, archival mylar-protected pictorial dust jacket (unclipped) with detail of a Tate painting depicting Cook raising the Union Jack in Australia, 385 pages + [2] About the Author + [2] About the Type. Thomas Keneally, AO (born 1935) is a prolific Australian novelist, playwright, and essayist. He is perhaps best known for Schindler's List, which won not only the prestigeous Booker Prize but was made into a major movie by Steven Spielberg. SIGNED & in Exceptional Condition Internally and Externally! Seller Inventory # 6203

Synopsis:

It was 1786 when Arthur Phillip, an ambitious captain in the Royal Navy, was assigned the formidable task of organizing an expedition to Australia in order to establish a penal colony. The squalid and turbulent prisons of London were overflowing, and crime was on the rise. Even the hulks sifting at anchor in the Thames were packed with malcontent criminals and petty thieves. So the English government decided to undertake the unprecedented move of shipping off its convicts to a largely unexplored landmass at the other end of the world.

Using the personal journals and documents that were kept during this expedition, historian/novelist Thomas Keneally re-creates the grueling overseas voyage, a hellish, suffocating journey that claimed the lives of many convicts. Miraculously, the fleet reached the shores of what was then called New South Wales in 1788, and after much trial and error, the crew managed to set up a rudimentary yet vibrant settlement. As governor of the colony, Phillip took on the challenges of dealing with unruly convicts, disgruntled officers, a bewildered, sometimes hostile native population, as well as such serious matters as food shortages and disease. Moving beyond Phillip, Keneally offers captivating portrayals of Aborigines, who both aided and opposed Phillip, and of the settlers, including convicts who were determined to overcome their pasts and begin anew.

With the authority of a renowned historian and the narrative grace of a brilliant novelist, Thomas Keneally offers an insider’s perspective into the dramatic saga of the birth of a vibrant society in an unfamiliar land. A Commonwealth of Thieves immerses us in the fledgling penal colony and conjures up colorful scenes of the joy and heartbreak, the thrills and hardships that characterized those first four improbable years. The result is a lively and engrossing work of history, as well as a tale of redemption for the thousands of convicts who started new lives thousands of miles from their homes.

About the Author:

THOMAS KENEALLY has won international acclaim for his novels Schindler’s List (the basis for the movie and the winner of the Booker Prize), The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith, Confederates, Gossip from the Forest, The Playmaker, Woman of the Inner Sea, A River Town, Office of Innocence, and The Tyrant’s Novel. His most recent works of nonfiction are The Great Shame and American Scoundrel. He resides in Sydney, Australia.

Bibliographic Details

Title: COMMONWEALTH OF THIEVES NP; The Improbable ...
Publisher: Nan A. Talese / Doubleday, New York London Toronto Sydney Auckland
Publication Date: 2006
Binding: Cloth and boards
Condition: Very Fine
Dust Jacket Condition: Very Fine
Signed: Signed by Author(s)
Edition: First U.S. Edition, First Printing.