num_pages: 349
description: This title is the first mass-market edition of the new novel from winner of the Orange Prize and author of the bestselling "The Idea Of Perfection". It is the winner of the Commonwealth Writers' Prize Best Book 2006 and longlisted for the Miles Franklin Literary Award 2006. This story is set in 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 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...
language: English
title: The Secret River
titlecomplete: The Secret River
characters: Kate Grenville, Ningali Lawford-Wolf
genres: Fiction, Historical, Australia, Book Club, School, Literature, Novels, 19th Century, Historical Fiction, Literary Fiction
ratings_count: 22348
places: Australia, Dhirrumbim, New South Wales, New South Wales
series: Thornhill Family
awards: awardedAt: 1136102400000
name: Booker Prize, awardedAt: 1136102400000
name: New South Wales Premier's Literary Award
category: Christina Stead Prize for Fiction & Community Relations Commission Award, awardedAt: 1136102400000
name: Miles Franklin Literary Award, awardedAt: 1136102400000
name: Australian Booksellers Association Book of the Year, awardedAt: 1136102400000
name: Commonwealth Writers' Prize
category: Best Book Overall, awardedAt: 1136102400000
name: Australian Book Industry Award (ABIA)
category: Literary Fiction and for Book of the Year, awardedAt: 1136102400000
name: Nita B. Kibble Literary Award
publisher: Canongate Books Ltd