Product Description

As a boy, Daniel Rooke was always an outsider. At school, he learned to hide his clever thoughts from his cruel peers; at home, his parents were bemused by their bookish son. Daniel could only hope - against all the evidence - that he would one day find his place in life. By 1788, Daniel has become Lieutenant Rooke, astronomer with the First Fleet as it lands on the unknown shores of New South Wales. As the newcomers struggle to establish a settlement for themselves and their cargo of convicts, and attempts are made to communicate with those who already inhabit this land, Rooke sets up his observatory to chart the stars. But the place where they have landed will prove far more revelatory than the night sky. Out on his isolated point, Rooke comes to know the local Aboriginal people, and forges a remarkable connection with one child, which will change his life in ways he never imagined.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #11412 in Books
• Published on: 2009-02-05
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 302 pages

Times Literary Supplement
A compelling narrative . . . an intelligent, spare, always engrossing imagining of first contact.

The Times
Grenville is one of Australia's most popular writers, and this novel is a triumph. Read it at once.

Daily Telegraph
Grenville has brought imagination and compassion to the source of so much of Australia's retroactive hand-wringing.

Customer Reviews

Flimsy
'The Lieutenant' tells the story of Lt. Daniel Rooke, a junior officer in the Royal Marines, sent with an expidition to Australia to found the settlement at Sydney. While there, he meets the local tribe and begins to learn their language and in doing so forms a relationship with them, thinking of them as human in a way not shared by his comrades.

That's really all there is to it, it's a simple, nicely written story, but not really enough meat to it. It feels like a framework for a more in depth story, but as it is this reads as unfinished. Characters and motives are left unexplored and the really interesting part of Rookes life, revealed in the last few pages, happens 'off screen' and takes up less than a page.
'The Lieutenant' is a pleasant diversion for a few hours, but is a disapointing book.

something missing
I really wanted to enjoy this novel. I have never read any Kate Grenville before but have seen many great reviews for her previous books. The story of 'The Lieutenant' also seemed very intruiging - military colonialist vassal empathises with indigenous culture but has to walk a tightrope between them both.

When I first started reading I couldn't understand quite how the back story/intro was so thin and sparse (as another reviewer pointed out). It seemed like a rushed summary and did not appear to bode well for the remainder. I wasn't expecting the detail of Thomas Keanally but this is extremely cursive writing. ('Readers Digest' Condensed is not what is required here at the outset of an epic novel.)

However, the story did get into deeper territory by about the 100th page -and the middle section was much more satisfying. But then the end started to taper off once more and become thin/cursive again. That's a shame - for 'The Lieutenant' is at heart a fine, intelligent, questioning, passionate novel. The underdevelopment of the beginning and end spoils the whole texture of the narrative - and you wonder why an editor didn't clearly say so to the author?

A classy novel
We lived in Australia for five years in the 1970s and I've always been interested in its history. My wife read The Secret River a while back, loved it and got it adopted as the next book for her local book group. So I leaped at the chance for an early read of The Lieutenant.

I've not been in the slightest disappointed and loved the book. It is very well written, moves along well and has some beautiful descriptive and narrative passages. I particularly liked the description of the protagonist's clever-autistic tendencies and the way in which he came to see the aborigines as fascinating and very different humans. I could almost feel his disgust at the way a colleague totally misunderstood the nature of his relationship with the local inhabitants, particularly the young girl. And the conflicting loyalties he felt were absolutely convincing.

All in all a classy novel and a really good read, equally suitable on a winter's evening or round the pool on holiday.