Product Description

This story is set in London, 1807. William Thornhill, happily wedded to his childhood sweetheart Sal, is a waterman on the River Thames. Life is tough but bearable until William makes a mistake, a bad mistake for which he and his family are made to pay dearly. His sentence: to be transported to New South Wales for the term of his natural life. The Thornhills arrive in this harsh and alien land that they cannot understand and which feels like a death sentence. But, among the convicts there is a rumour that freedom can be bought, that 'unclaimed' land up the Hawkesbury offers an opportunity to start afresh, far away from the township of Sydney. When William takes a hundred acres for himself, he is shocked to find Aboriginal people already living on the river. And other recent arrivals - Thomas Blackwood, Smasher Sullivan and Mrs. Herring - are finding their own ways to respond to them. Soon Thornhill, a man neither better nor worse than most, has to make the most difficult decision of his life...

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #916 in Books
• Published on: 2006-09-07
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 352 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"

The Independent, 1/09/06
In this dazzling novel . . . Grenville achieves a fine balance of
sympathy for the Aboriginal population of her native Australia . .
.Stunning.

Waterstone's Books Quarterly
a vivid evocation of the rawest kind of colonialism

Customer Reviews

A fascinating story
I picked this book up at a hotel in Vietnam from one of those "take one, leave one" shelves. Having never heard of the author or the book I didn't hold out much hope of enjoying it but thought it might help to pass a bumpy seven hour bus journey I had coming up the next day.

It didn't take long for me to be pulled into the story of Will Thornhill and his feisty wife Sal. A poverty stricken waterman is condemned to hang in early 19th century London but with the help of his wife has his sentence changed to transportation. Some excellent descriptive writings of London scenes and of life in New South Wales. Through hard work and luck Will takes on 100 acres of land on the edge of a river. But there are others lurking and his land which is now legally his - aboriginals. They seem to come and go, taking crops he has grown and showing no `respect' for the new owners. The author does well to view this clash from a 19th century viewpoint. It is too easy to see it from a liberal 21st century standpoint. Will's family shows no concept of what the land means to "the blacks" - there is plenty more land that they can go to, so why should they hang around here?

However one of their sons, Dick, is instinctively attracted to the aboriginal people and begins to learn about their ways until forbidden by Will. (I feel more could have been made of this but perhaps Grenville didn't want to go off at too many tangents)

The optimism of the Thornhill's is tinged with sadness. If Will's family is to remain on "their" land then a solution to the "molestations and depredations" must be found. We know that a tragedy awaits the native people but when it comes it is shocking and horrific.

On the surface this is a good family saga. But it is actually much more than that and raised (in a subtle way) lots of issues about power, class and colonisation. How easily someone who has been a victim can become the bully! Just like the old Yeats' poem about the beggar on horseback lashing the beggar on foot.

A fascinating story about the early times in New South Wales.

I'm glad I picked up The Secret River. I left it in the next hotel and hope that by now someone else has chosen it!

A gripping novel that draws you in
I loved this book. I read it very quickly because it was so hard to put down. Kate Grenville writes beautifully and captures the magic of the Australian landscape.

The story is about William Thornhill who is sentenced to life as a convict in Australia in the early 19th century. The first part of the book concerns his life in Georgian England. He is born into abject poverty and although he tries to make an honest go of it, circumstances lead him into crime. He is convicted of theft and his sentence is to be transported to New South Wales for the term of his natural life. His wife and child accompany him. This part of the book is a little slow, but the momentum picks up once they get to Australia, about 75 pages in.

In Australia, Thornhill discovers that the new country represents a blank slate where he can re-invent himself and break out of the cycle of poverty and crime that he has come from. He quickly wins his freedom and seizes the opportunity to get his own land and create his own farm, staking a claim to 100 seemingly vacant acres of land. However this brings him directly into contact (and potentially into conflict) with the native Aboriginal people.

The book is beautifully written. It really takes you into the world of early colonial Australia and gives you a sense of how difficult a life the early settlers had. The tension builds and builds as it become obvious that some kind of conflict between Thornhill's family and the Aborigines is inevitable. It made me understand the way that good people can be conflicted about what the right thing to do is. Different settlers in the area make different decisions and as you read the book, it you wonder how you would have acted in the same circumstances. But aside from the moral dilemmas, it's just a good story: a man trying to create a new and better life for himself and his family, overcoming many hurdles and setbacks, and gradually realising that the biggest threat of all is right in front of him.

A grand and multifaceted novel
This was a compelling read - one family's struggle against a world which they did not control. Having said that, I have to confess a personal weakness for the histroical epic as a genre.

The central characters feel well well developed, although perhaps more could have been made of the wayward son. But that is minor. The imagery is stunning; the detail beautiful. The plot is gripping, leading to a real page turner - even though the eventual outcome (successful colonization of Australia at the expense of the native population) is well known. I was on tenterhooks to see where Thornhill would end up in the grand history of Australia.

The key theme for me was the rollercoaster ride between empowerment and powerlessness. Thornhill, the petty villain, was willing and eager to better himself - first by training as a boatman and marrying above his station, then as a trader in the new territories, and then as a farmer/landowner. But against this ambition, there were circumstances which he couldn't control. Illness and debt of his in-laws; the fate of the courts when caught pilfering; the elements; and the native Australians.

Thornhill and his homesick wife Sal were so eager to do the right thing, but the tragedy was that circumstances could not permit them, simultaneously, to do the right thing by each other and also by human justice. Powerlessness meant Thornhill had to choose between his conscience and his livelihood - in London, in Sydney and by the banks of the Hawkesbury. Meanwhile, others made their own choices and reaped the various consequences.

The novel sets the hope of the settlers and the tragedy of the native population against one another to perfection. It would have been easy to take a moralistic stance, but Ms Grenville does not. She leaves it for the reader to draw their own conclusions. The natives were [probably] not a peaceable population who were willing to be embraced - the settlers were not [all] bloodthirsty brutes.

This lack of black and white simplicity means I still can't work out in my own mind whether Thornhill ultimately called it right or wrong. And it is Ms Grenville's achievement that I care.

I was also touched with sadness as Sal's dream of a return to London began to diminish - particularly because it never seemed to be replaced with a love of her new home.

This is a grand and multifaceted novel - it takes big themes but has the humanity of the family level. This novel was shortlisted for the Booker Prize. It would have been a worthy winner.