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The Secret River (Hardcover)

by Kate Grenville (Author) "In the rooms where William Thornhill grew up, in the last decades of the eighteenth century, no one could move an elbow without hitting the..." (more)
Key Phrases: William Thornhill, Scabby Bill, First Branch (more...)

4.4 out of 5 stars See all reviews (24 customer reviews)

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Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
Grenville's Australian bestseller, which won the Orange Prize, is an eye-opening tale of the settlement of New South Wales by a population of exiled British criminals. Research into her own ancestry informs Grenville's work, the chronicle of fictional husband, father and petty thief William Thornhill and his path from poverty to prison, then freedom. Crime is a way of life for Thornhill growing up in the slums of London at the turn of the 19th century—until he's caught stealing lumber. Luckily for him, a life sentence in the penal colony of New South Wales saves him from the gallows. With his wife, Sal, and a growing flock of children, Thornhill journeys to the colony and a convict's life of servitude. Gradually working his way through the system, Thornhill becomes a free man with his own claim to the savage land. But as he transforms himself into a trader on the river, Thornhill realizes that the British are not the first to make New South Wales their home. A delicate coexistence with the native population dissolves into violence, and here Grenville earns her praise, presenting the settler–aboriginal conflict with equanimity and understanding. Grenville's story illuminates a lesser-known part of history—at least to American readers—with sharp prose and a vivid frontier family. (May)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From School Library Journal
Adult/High School–William Thornhill, a boatman in pre-Victorian London, escapes the harsh circumstances of his lower-class, hard-scrabble life and ends up a prosperous, albeit somehow unsatisfied, settler in Australia. After being caught stealing, he is sentenced to death; the sentence is commuted to transportation to Australia with his pregnant wife. Readers are filled with a sense of foreboding that turns out to be well founded. Life is difficult, but through hard work and initiative the Thornhills slowly get ahead. During his sentence, William has made his living hauling goods on the Hawkesbury River and thirsting after a piece of virgin soil that he regularly passes. Once he gains his freedom, his family moves onto the land, raises another rude hut, and plants corn. The small band of Aborigines camping nearby seems mildly threatening: William cannot communicate with them; they lead leisurely hunter/gatherer lives that contrast with his farming labor; and they appear and disappear eerily. They are also masterful spearmen, and Thornhill cannot even shoot a gun accurately. Other settlers on the river want to eliminate the Aborigines. The culture clash becomes violent, with the protagonist unwillingly drawn in. The characters are sympathetically and colorfully depicted, and the experiencing of circumstances beyond any single person's control is beautifully shown.–Judy McAloon, Potomac Library, Prince William County, VA
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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Product Details

Hardcover: 352 pages
Publisher: Canongate U.S.; Second Printing edition (April 21, 2006)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1841957976
ISBN-13: 978-1841957975
Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6.2 x 1.3 inches
Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)

Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars See all reviews (24 customer reviews)

Amazon.com Sales Rank: #276,511 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Inside This Book (learn more)

First Sentence:
In the rooms where William Thornhill grew up, in the last decades of the eighteenth century, no one could move an elbow without hitting the wall or the table or a sister or a brother. Read the first page

Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
William Thornhill, Scabby Bill, First Branch, Thornhill's Point, Black Dick, Whisker Harry, Butler's Buildings, Darkey Creek, Long Bob, Swan Lane, Smasher Sullivan, Sydney Cove, Will Thornhill, Green Hills, New South Wales, Port Jackson, Christ Church, Cobham Hall, George Twist, London Bridge, Captain Watson, Dan Oldfield, Watermen's Hall, Three Cranes Wharf, Covent Garden

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Citations (learn more)

This book cites 2 books:

Old London Bridge by Gordon Home on page 324
The Idea of Perfection by Kate Grenville in Front Matter

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Customer Reviews

24 Reviews

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4 star:		(5)
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Average Customer Review

4.4 out of 5 stars (24 customer reviews)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

48 of 51 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Haunting, Brilliant and Sad much more..., March 23, 2006

By	Irene Romano "Bookaholic" - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Kate Grenville's "The Secret River" is not simply another story of adventure and the pioneering spirit of young Australia (a genre which I seem to never tire of). I picked this one up on my last trip to Oz when a kind bookshop lady insisted I buy it and now am so grateful to her. Grenville has written a brave book about, ultimately, choices to be made and their consequences.

Will Thornhill's life in late 1700's London is truly abysmal, although he eventually marries cheerful, clever, loving Sal. Grenville describes this period of London life very well (painfully so, but absolutely readably) and all that leads to Will being condemned to be hanged and then "pardoned" to life as a convict in Australia.

The hardships of pioneering in Australia, the hard work of those who want to get ahead, the in's and out's of how convicts could become emancipated, the drinking of those who are beyond help, the fear of the whites of the "blacks," the shock of the weather, climate, and so forth are all wonderfully written. Grenville is economical with her prose yet conveys so much. She manages to make us feel the harsh rains, the up's and down's of Will's and Sal's fortunes, all aspects of what needs to be conveyed, in other words, without going on and on. We never become bored, we never never feel anything is missing. I couldn't stop reading the book.

Furthermore, the marriage between Will and Sal was very well done. It could have been sappy in another writer's hands, but because Will and Sal had so much to overcome and because there was so much darkness in this novel, this strong marriage was needed as a technique, as well as being believeable and cheered by the reader. I loved Will and Sal together, and I loved Sal's courage and spunk.

It is, however, Grenville's courageous writing about not only the atrocities committed by the "blacks" (the term used in the novel) against the whites, but especially the whites against the blacks which haunts the reader... and for many reasons. I don't want to give away any endings but I think I can safely say that I kept wondering how much was artistic, how much was character/plot. How much is "white man's guilt" in what I saw (granted, as a first-generation American) was a bit too convenient, or glossed over, or weak or out of character or "let's get to the end"? (From what I understand, Grenville was researching her ancestry when she decided to start this book.)

I loved this novel though I truly was haunted by it, as the author probably intended. I can see why this book became a bestseller in Australia. In being such a courageous book with such a courageous look at the beginnings of this young country, it is also a provocative look at it's beginnings and issues which are, unfortunately, still ongoing, and as with all complex issues which have festered, have no easy answers.

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28 of 32 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Superb book, June 22, 2006

By	KatPanama "katpanama" (Readerville) - See all my reviews

One of the books I read during my recent holiday was Kate Grenville's brilliant The Secret River. But it was upsetting, too, which is why I've put off commenting. I've a penchant for colonial literature and this is an entry in that category for sure. Yet, what sets it apart from, say, Conrad and others, is its working-class tone.

And, it does make brutally clever sense. The British essentially used convicted felons and their families to settle Australia, or, at lest, its rim. It's shock troops weren't soldiers but the transported working class who quite likely were even more tenacious and driven. That's the story Grenville tells in this utterly affecting novel. It's the sort of book that gives the reader pause, makes the reader sit back a bit to question -- what is happening here? This is a revisionist sort of colonialism that sets a new context ... but doesn't change the outcome. But, then, nothing could.

Superb novel, excellent reading from stem to stern. The writing is particularly fine, herewith a few bits:

"She was inclined to take it personally about the trees, wondering aloud that they did not know enough to be green, the way a tree should be, but a washed-out silvery grey so they always looked half dead. Nor were they a proper shape, oak shape or elm shape, but were tortured formless things, holding out sprays of leaves on the ends of bare spindly branches that gave no more protection from the sun than shifting veils of shadow. Instead of dropping their leaves they cast off their bark so it dangled among the branches like dirty rags. In every direction that the eye travelled from the settlement all it could see were the immense bulges and distances of that grey-green forest. There was something about its tangle that seemed to make the eye blind, searching for pattern and finding none. It was exhausting to look at: different everywhere and yet everywhere the same."
...

"For himself he bought a pair of boots, the first he had ever owned. When he put them on he understood why gentry looked different. Partly it was having money in the bank, but it was also your boots telling you how to walk."

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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A gripping novel that draws you in, April 4, 2007

By	Julia Flyte - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)

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.

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Most Recent Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars River of Tears
Kate Grenville is one of the great writers of Australia. The Secret River is a story which allows the reader to experience the harsh and spartan life of the early English... Read more

Published 7 months ago by Bronte Morris

5.0 out of 5 stars Whisked through a portal in time
Each time I opened Ms. Grenville's novel, I stepped backward in time. Her attention to detail saturated each page without leaving the reader suffocated. Read more

Published 23 months ago by L. J. Anderson

5.0 out of 5 stars The Secret River
Great book. A sound historical baseline brings the reader from the Thames to the land down under through the eyes of a boatsman who does what he has to do to survive and care for... Read more

Published on May 22, 2007 by Nairb Ninorc

3.0 out of 5 stars A Howard Fast Immigrant tale?
This is a book and review that I am quite ambivalent about. I had a rather strange response to this book which won the 2006 Commonwealth Prize. Read more

Published on February 7, 2007 by Bobby D.

5.0 out of 5 stars Confronting and totally draws you in
This is a superb book of the trials and tribulations that the early settlers faced when arriving in the newly "discovered" Australia. Read more

Published on February 5, 2007 by Lesley West

5.0 out of 5 stars A little point of land
Australian writers seem to have strong ties to the histories of their forebears. Thomas Keneally, Richard Flanagan and Roger McDonald are but a few authors who have successfully... Read more

Published on February 1, 2007 by Stephen A. Haines

5.0 out of 5 stars Delightful yet disturbing, lyrical yet haunting--unputdownable!
The Secret River is a poignant novel, loosely based on the family history of its author, Kate Grenville. Read more

Published on January 12, 2007 by Orthodox Lutheran Reader

5.0 out of 5 stars The Secret River
Wow! A gripping story and superb writing. Grenville's prose is haunting, her characters are the stuff of great literature. Read more

Published on January 9, 2007 by B. Morro

5.0 out of 5 stars Brilliant Australian story
Much of what I think has already been said; however I still feel compelled to add to the other reviews. The Secret River is an excellent book. Read more

Published on November 29, 2006 by Kate Ahmad

4.0 out of 5 stars It Could be America
I thoroughly enjoyed Kate Greenville's prize winning "The Secret River" and was struck as I closed the last page that it could easily have been written about early America;... Read more

Published on November 27, 2006 by Mary Lins

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