The Secret River - Tapa blanda

A vivid evocation of the rawest kind of colonialism. -- Jem Poster * * Books * * Ambitious new novel... Grenville's skill is to turn what could have been too obviously a representative moral fable into a rich novel of character. * * Sunday Telegraph * * Winner of the 2001 Orange Prize for Fiction with The Idea of Perfection, Grenville's latest, beautifully written novel concerns William Thornhill, a 19th-century convict from London deported to Australia, where he staked a claim on ancient Aboriginal lands - with tragic consequences. * * Financial Times * * The Secret River is a vivid and moving portrayal of poverty, struggle and the search for peace. * * The Independent * * [This] book may well be Grenville's best work yet. She has a reputation for elegant prose that cuts to the very heart of her subject matter with breathtaking precision. With The Secret River she has done it again in spades.Vogue * * Vogue * * This is a dramatic, beautiful work - on a par with Patrick White or Sally Morgan - that will ensure Grenville's place on the international market. * * Scotland on Sunday * *

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 ...