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Sarah is the youngest child of William Thornhill, the pioneer at the center of The Secret River. Unknown to her, her father - an uneducated ex-convict from London - has built his fortune on the blood of Aboriginal people. With a fine stone house and plenty of money, Thornhill has re-invented himself. As he tells his daughter, he "never looks back," and Sarah grows up learning not to ask about the past. Instead her eyes are on handsome Jack Langland, whom she's loved since she was a child. Their romance seems destined, but the ugly secret in Sarah's family is poised to ambush them both.
As she did with The Secret River, Grenville once again digs into her own family history to tell a story about the past that still resonates today. Driven by the captivating voice of the illiterate Sarah - at once headstrong, sympathetic, curious, and refreshingly honest - this is an unforgettable portrait of a passionate woman caught up in a historical moment of astonishing turmoil.
"Both brilliant fiction and illuminating personal history." - The Independent (UK)
"It is with often marvelous vividness and clarity that Grenville evokes Sarah's world. ...Through the eyes of this young woman, the physical and cultural strangeness of a nation still clambering into existence spring richly to life." - The Guardian (UK)
"[A] captivating tale of a woman's fight to find an identity of her own in a 'new' colony. [Grenville's] wonderful account shows how hard it can be simply to be yourself ...A deeply moving conclusion to a romantic but by no means sentimental story." - The Telegraph (UK)
"Sarah Thornhill displays [Grenville's] gift for creating character full blaze. ...A great work of truth . ...What unfolds is a box of surprises, richly wrapped in language so colorful and lively, you can taste it. ...You believe in [Sarah's] honesty, her perceptiveness, her way of 'reading' others. ...A wonderful novel." - The Scotsman (UK)
"I was thrilled to find myself back beside the river I'd come to know so well in The Secret River. The power with which Kate Grenville evokes places and people is so remarkable that I could remember the smell of the air there - and it was no surprise to discover that Sarah Thornhill's story is as gripping and illuminating as her father's was." - Diana Athill
"Grenville's extraordinary trilogy is a major achievement in Australian literature." - Australian Book Review
"A moving piece of fiction ...Powerfully realized... Sarah Thornhill is the book of a writer of the first rank... A haunting performance." - The Age (Australia)
"Beautifully written, with sufficient backstory to be enjoyed without first reading the previous two installments, this novel can be read as a dissection of a cultural
clash or an allegory for colonialism, but at heart, the novel uses fiction to search for reason within history." - Kirkus
This information about Sarah Thornhill was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Photo: Lorrie Graham
Kate Grenville was born in Sydney, Australia. After completing an Arts degree at Sydney University she worked in the film industry (mainly as an editor) before living in the UK and Europe for several years and starting to write.
In 1980 she went to the USA and completed an MA in Creative Writing at the University of Colorado, where her teachers included Ron Sukenick, Robert Steiner and Steve Katz.
On her return to Australia in 1983 she worked at the Subtitling Unit for SBS Television. In 1984 her first book, a collection of stories - Bearded Ladies - was published.
Kate Grenville has been awarded an Honorary Doctor of Letters by the University of New South Wales, the University of Sydney, and Macquarie University.
Kate's works of fiction include The Secret River, winner ...
... Full Biography
Author Interview
Link to Kate Grenville's Website
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