Kate Grenville
Paperback | Pages: 334 pages Rating: 3.8 | 17209 Users | 1637 Reviews
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| Original Title: | The Secret River |
| ISBN: | 1841959146 (ISBN13: 9781841959146) |
| Edition Language: | English |
| Series: | Thornhill Family #1 |
| Setting: | Dhirrumbim, New South Wales(Australia) New South Wales(Australia) Australia |
| Literary Awards: | Booker Prize Nominee (2006), New South Wales Premier's Literary Award for Christina Stead Prize for Fiction & Community Relations Commission Award (2006), Australian Booksellers Association Book of the Year (2006), Commonwealth Writers' Prize for Best Book Overall (2006), Australian Book Industry Award (ABIA) for Literary Fiction and for Book of the Year (2006) Nita B. Kibble Literary Award Nominee (2006) |
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In 1806 William Thornhill, an illiterate English bargeman and a man of quick temper but deep compassion, steals a load of wood and, as a part of his lenient sentence, is deported, along with his beloved wife, Sal, to the New South Wales colony in what would become Australia. The Secret River is the tale of William and Sal’s deep love for their small, exotic corner of the new world, and William’s gradual realization that if he wants to make a home for his family, he must forcibly take the land from the people who came before him. Acclaimed around the world, The Secret River is a magnificent, transporting work of historical fiction.List Epithetical Books The Secret River (Thornhill Family #1)
| Title | : | The Secret River (Thornhill Family #1) |
| Author | : | Kate Grenville |
| Book Format | : | Paperback |
| Book Edition | : | Anniversary Edition |
| Pages | : | Pages: 334 pages |
| Published | : | April 10th 2007 by Canongate U.S. (first published 2005) |
| Categories | : | Historical. Historical Fiction. Fiction. Cultural. Australia |
Rating Epithetical Books The Secret River (Thornhill Family #1)
Ratings: 3.8 From 17209 Users | 1637 ReviewsCriticize Epithetical Books The Secret River (Thornhill Family #1)
The Secret River explores human instinct on a level that is visceral, honest... and depressing. Or perhaps it is just Western instinct, rather than human instinct--and that is even more depressing.The novel tracks a family of Brits at the turn of the 19th century as the family is deported to Australia for crimes committed by William Thornhill, husband and father, and as it engages the challenges of the wilderness. At its core, The Secret River is the story of the family's interactions with theHaving read a lot of five star reviews for this book I was hoping for something great but for me it turned out just ordinary. I really feel I have read this same kind of story so many times and some of them were better told than this one. It was a fairly short book and the story moved along well. Kate Grenville is like Bryce Courtney in that she seems to revel in the dirt and grime of that age and she was very into describing the atrocities committed between the settlers and the indigenous
It was my pleasure to review this excellent book for Harper Collins Canada. Here's what I said:The Secret River by Kate Grenville is historical fiction at its finest. It starts off as a quiet pondering story of the toils in poverty-stricken 19th century England where most must resort to stealing to survive. Here Grenville focused on her central character, William Thornhill who got caught thieving to feed his family. He was sentenced to death, however that was commuted to life in New South Wales.
Yes, this book is admirably researched and yes, the basic premise is interesting. But no, it is not particularly absorbing and no, it is not well written. I have a particular bias against writers that spend an inordinate amount of time on painstaking (read painful) descriptions of setting. The novel is 334 pages long - about 80 per cent of that is taken up with environmental minutiae (or at least it felt like it). Pages and pages of it - then perhaps a couple of lines of dialogue, hidden away in
The Secret River is a historical story about William Thornhill who was convicted of a crime in England and sentenced to death. However, William Thornhill wrote a letter saying how sorry he was for committing this offence and it was converted to transportation to Australia for his natural life. Readers of The Secret River will continue to follow the twist and turns to see what happens to William and Sarah Thornhill. The Secret River is the first book I have read of Kate Grenville, and I enjoyed
I am an Australian of Anglo-Celtic and Northern European background, meaning that my ancestry is English, Cornish, Irish, German and Danish, with a bit of Scottish thrown in for good measure. I was born in Sydney, where I still live. More than five generations of my ancestors on both sides were born in Australia. This takes my roots in the country back to the early 19th century, which in white Australian terms is a long time. One of my ancestors was a convict transported from Ireland because he
There is much that is good about Kate Grenvilles novel, but what impressed me most is her ability to get so deeply inside a character that she can show what the world looks like through his eyes. (Forgive the he: Grenvilles central character in this novel is a man.) Here is William Thornhill, Thames River lighterman: After a time the mud-choked water and the ships it carried, thick on its back like fleas on a dog, became nothing more than a big room of which every corner was known. He came to
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