Product Description

Kate Grenville's "The Secret River" was one of the most loved novels of 2006. Shortlisted for the Booker Prize and awarded the Commonwealth Writer's Prize, the story of William Thornhill and his journey from London to the other side of the world has moved and exhilarated hundreds of thousands of readers. "Searching for the Secret River" tells the story of how Grenville came to write this wonderful book. It is in itself an amazing story, beginning with Grenville's great-great-great grandfather. Grenville starts to investigate her ancestor, hoping to understand his life. She pursues him from Sydney to London and back, and slowly she begins to realise she must write about him. "Searching for the Secret River" maps this creative journey into fiction, and illuminates the importance of family in all our lives.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #177259 in Books
• Published on: 2007-07-05
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 230 pages

Review
"We have had to wait five years for The Secret River but the wait has been worth it... Splendidly paced, passionate and disturbing." The Times "Grenville, as ever, describes an Australia so overwhelmingly beautiful that readers will lust after its sunbaked soul too." Daily Telegraph "A sad book, beautifully written and, at times, almost unbearable with the weight of loss, competing distresses and the impossibility of making amends." Observer "Grenville's skill is to turn what could have been too obviously a representative moral fable into a rich novel of character." Sunday Telegraph"

Synopsis
Kate Grenville's "The Secret River" was one of the most loved novels of 2006. Shortlisted for the Booker Prize and awarded the Commonwealth Writer's Prize, the story of William Thornhill and his journey from London to the other side of the world has moved and exhilarated hundreds of thousands of readers. "Searching for the Secret River" tells the story of how Grenville came to write this wonderful book. It is in itself an amazing story, beginning with Grenville's great-great-great grandfather. Grenville starts to investigate her ancestor, hoping to understand his life. She pursues him from Sydney to London and back, and slowly she begins to realise she must write about him. "Searching for the Secret River" maps this creative journey into fiction, and illuminates the importance of family in all our lives.

About the Author
Kate Grenville was born in Sydney. Her last novel, The Secret River, is tremendously successful. Her previous novel, The Idea of Perfection, won the Orange Prize for Fiction in 2001 and became a long-running bestseller. Her six other works of fiction have won numerous awards. Kate Grenville lives in Sydney with her family.

Customer Reviews

A fascinating lifting of the veil
For anyone who read and loved The Secret River as I did, Searching for the Secret River will be a riveting and unique insight into how this great novel came to be written. Even if you haven't read The Secret River I still think you would be mesmerised, such is the quality of Grenville's prose and her insights into not just her past but all our pasts. Magnificent stuff.