Amazon.com: The Emancipist: A Saga of the Early Days of Australia (9780671602093): Veronica Geoghegan Sweeney: Books

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The hero of this massive first novel set in 19th century Ireland and Australia islike the story itselffiery-spirited, credible, compelling. Convicted of "agrarian outrages" during Ireland's Great Famine, Aidan O'Brien is transported to Tasmania, after losing Anna (the girl he loves) to his landlord and marrying another woman. He endures the brutal life of the penal colony, survives escape and recapture and, as a convict laborer, learns to be a shipbuilder. He also falls in love with a girl who reminds him of Anna. After Aidan's sentence is served, he sends to Ireland for his cold wife and independent-minded children; they move to New South Wales, where, free from the stigma of being an "emancipist" (ex-convict), Aidan prospers. This saga captures, through the lives of Aidan's family, friends, associates and enemies, the horrors of rural Ireland in the 1840s and the vigor of youthful Australia. Sweeney's grasp of social history is as authentic as her portrayal of human passion; she is clearly a novelist to watch. Literary Guild and Doubleday Book Club alternates. Foreign rights: Pan Books. January 7
Copyright 1985 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

In 19th-century Ireland, poor, fatherless Aidan O'Brien is befriended by the local landowner, and hated by his son, Devlin Kelly. Transported to Australia for a crime he didn't commit, Aidan fights to survive, first as a prisoner, then as an "emancipist" (an Australian word for ex-convict) until he attains success and finally happiness. This lengthy first novel has a strong beginning. The scenes in Ireland and the view of Australia's early history are vivid and absorbing. The novel begins to lose momentum with O'Brien's quest for success. His character becomes less sympathetic; his relationships are bewildering, and too neatly packaged at the end. Fans of period sagas will probably enjoy this; certainly they will want to know how the feud between O'Brien and Kelly ends. Lydia Burruel, Mesa P.L., Ariz.
Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc.

More About the Author

› Visit Amazon's Veronica Geoghegan Sweeney Page

Veronica Geoghegan Sweeney was born in Sydney, Australia, in 1949. Her father died when she was sixteen and a year later her sister, Margo, aged twenty four, died of Hodgkin's Lymphoma. The loss of people she loved and the destruction of her close-knit family affected her, and probably adds, she says, to a strong sense of family, or the search for family and 'belonging', in all her novels.
Veronica failed first year law studies and then, encouraged by her mother, Elizabeth, she decided to concentrate on what she felt she did best, writing, acting and classical music. "Consequently I have lived with penury most of my life," but would not have it any other way. She loves travelling - "I've dragged my mother, my daughter and my granddaughter, separately or together, half-way 'round the world on more than one occasion" - and now lives in Ireland. Her first novel, The Emancipist, was published in 1985; this was followed by South lies the Valley (1988), A Turn of the Blade (1996), Dark Obsession (1999) and Dark Lord of Geeragh in 2000.
Readers can follow Veronica's blog-of-sorts on Facebook at Veronica Geoghegan Sweeney. Her mystery novel, The Summer Place, set in New Brunswick, Canada, and her two fantasy novels, Dark Lord of Geeragh and Dead Pirates and the Exceptional Children are available on Kindle. She is currently uploading her first novel, The Emancipist, which will be available in October, 2011.