Searching for the Secret River

Kate Grenville

PRAISE FOR KATE GRENVILLE
AND THE SECRET RIVER

‘One of the most entertaining, accomplished, engaging novels written in this country…We always knew Grenville was good, but this one is brilliant…it will live on as a classic.’
Courier-Mail

‘The Secret River is fabulous historical fiction.’ Australian

‘An outstanding study of cultures in collision…a chilling, meticulous account of the sorrows and evils of colonialism.’

Guardian

‘The Secret River is a sad book, beautifully written and, at times, almost unbearable with the weight of loss, competing distresses and the impossibility of making amends.’ Observer

‘Grenville, as ever, describes an Australia so overwhelmingly beautiful that readers will lust after its sunbaked soul too.’

Telegraph on Saturday

‘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

‘The Secret River stands out as a work of sustained power and imagination, of poetry and insight. No truer piece of fiction has been written about the Australian past.’

Peter Temple, Australian

‘A profoundly important book.’

Listener (New Zealand)

‘The Secret River reminds us that national history may be recorded as a succession of larger-than-life leaders and battles, but in fact a country arises from the accretion of personal dreams, private sacrifices and, offen, hidden acts of cruelty.’

Washington Post’s Book World

Kate Grenville is one of Australia’s finest writers. Her bestselling novel The Secret River has been published in more than twenty countries. It has received numerous awards, including the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize, and was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize. The Idea of Perfection won Britain’s prestigious Orange Prize for Fiction, and her other award-winning novels, which include Lilian’s Story, Dark Places and Joan Makes History, have become modern classics. Her most recent novel, The Lieutenant, was published in 2008. Kate Grenville maintains a website at www.kategrenville.com

BOOKS BY THE AUTHOR

FICTION:

Bearded Ladies

Lilian’s Story

Dreamhouse

Joan Makes History

Dark Places

The Idea of Perfection

The Secret River

The Lieutenant

NON-FICTION:

The Writing Book

Making Stories: How Ten Australian Novels Were Written (with Sue Woolfe)

Writing from Start to Finish

KATE
GRENVILLE

Searching

FOR THE
SECRET
RIVER

TEXT PUBLISHING MELBOURNE AUSTRALIA

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The Text Publishing Company
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www.textpublishing.com.au
www.kategrenville.com

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First published 2006 by The Text Publishing Company
This edition published 2008

Design by Chong
Typeset in Janson by J & M Typesetting
Printed and bound in Australia by Griffin Press