Description
Book SynopsisSHORTLISTED FOR THE WALTER SCOTT PRIZE FOR HISTORICAL FICTION - the new novel from the Women's Prize for Fiction winner and Man Booker prize-shortlisted author of The Secret River
It is 1788. Twenty-one-year-old Elizabeth is hungry for life but, as the ward of a Devon clergyman, knows she has few prospects. When proud, scarred soldier John Macarthur promises her the earth one midsummer's night, she believes him.
But Elizabeth soon realises she has made a terrible mistake. Her new husband is reckless, tormented, driven by some dark rage at the world. He tells her he is to take up a position as Lieutenant in a New South Wales penal colony and she has no choice but to go. Sailing for six months to the far side of the globe with a child growing inside her, she arrives to find Sydney Town a brutal, dusty, hungry place of makeshift shelters, failing crops, scheming and rumours.
All her life she has learned to be obliging, to fold herself up small. Now, in the vast landscapes of an unknown continent, Elizabeth has to discover a strength she never imagined, and passions she could never express.
Inspired by the real life of a remarkable woman, this is an extraordinarily rich, beautifully wrought novel of resilience, courage and the mystery of human desire.
Trade ReviewBeautifully written, insistently eloquent and expressive of connection . . . [a] stunning literary achievement * * Guardian * *
Kate Grenville spins a delicately teasing novel about the inherent untrustworthiness of the official record . . . beautiful and subtle * * Financial Times * *
Grenville cleverly uses Elizabeth's bland and pleasant missives home, showing that they were a carefully constructed fiction. The real Elizabeth - passionate, clever and endlessly resilient - is brilliantly conjured * * The Times * *
Kate Grenville gives voice to this reticent woman, allowing her smart, sparky, shrewd heroine a chance "at last to speak" . . . eloquent [and] evocative * * Daily Mail * *
The absorbing story of a woman discovering herself in the vast expanse of a new world, told in rich, insightful prose * * Sunday Times * *
Historical fiction at its best . . . breathtaking . . . [Elizabeth is a] plucky, sharp-minded young woman * * Good Housekeeping * *
Evocative . . . [A] gorgeous, generous novel * * Sunday Express * *
Vivid, lyrical and engrossing. Both authentic and imaginative, the voice of the female narrator quietly challenges not only conventional historical narratives but our whole idea of what history is about -- ALICE JOLLY
Elizabeth Macarthur manages her complicated life with spirit and passion, cunning and sly wit . . . Kate Grenville's return to the territory of
The Secret River is historical fiction turned inside out, a stunning sleight of hand by one of our most original writers * * Australian Arts Review * *
An imaginative depiction of a relationship forged in the earliest days of the Australian colony . . . an engaging book -- ERICA WAGNER * * Guardian * *
