The Secret River

I loved this book. Just the act of reading this book itself gave me so much pleasure- I would sometimes just go back over the same words and marvel at how well they fit together, how genius Grenville must be to write descriptive passages just so, in a way that created such vivid images. The Secret River is above all about the ache, the passion, people feel for a place they call home. The desire a man feels to make something... Read Full Review

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... Read Full Review

This is a superb book of the trials and tribulations that the early settlers faced when arriving in the newly "discovered" Australia. I won't revisit the plot and characters, as other reviewers have done this admirably, but will note that the story and the characters are entirely believable, and that the twists and turns that the plot takes could have their origins in a history book of early white settlement in Australia... Read Full Review

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... Read Full Review