The Secret River

William Thornhill is born into poverty and the slums of London in the 1880's. In many ways, a good person at heart, William is also a complex character. "He grew up a fighter. By the time he was ten years old the other boys knew to leave him alone. The rage warmed him and filled him up. It was a kind of friend." p. 15

Shortly after marrying his beloved wife, Sal, he is sentenced to death for stealing wood. However , his sentence is commuted to transportation to Australia " for the term of his natural life"

His wife and growing family accompany him to the "sad scrabbling" p75 town of Sydney in 1806. There he labours for " His Majesty's Government " as England colonizes Australia.

As time goes by, William a loving husband and father, wishes show more for more dignity and patch of land to call his own. Very much against his wife's wishes, William moves his family to a very isolated piece of bush on the side of Hawkesbury River, a spot with which he has become smitten.While the young family tries to eke out a plot of land, slowly they realize that in fact this land is already occupied by aboriginal people. Internally frightened and not really understanding the aboriginal people and their culture , William acts aggressively and angrily with these people.

This is a powerful story, and the climax, in which many white men confront the aboriginal people, evoked anger, sorrow and even rage within me. I felt ashamed to to a part of the white race that has so often attempted to colonize other countries by our own villainous treatment of indigenous people. The Secret River shines a powerful and unflinching light on the clash between the forces of greed and entitlement felt by many colonizers versus the aboriginal people.

Very graphic, grim, unsettling and powerful , The Secret River will stay with me for a long, long time.

4. 5 stars show less

In 1806, waterman William Thornhill is caught stealing from a cargo of timber and sentenced to be transported to Australia. His wife volunteers to go with him, taking their young children.

The author has some beautiful descriptions of places and the scenery of London and the early beginnings of Sydney. Unfortunately she didn't seem to be able to bring her characters to life in quite the same way so I found this a bit of a slog to get through.

This is an excellent historical fiction novel about life in the early colonies of Australia, or New South Wales as it was called at the time. The book follows the life of William Thornhill who grows up in utter poverty in London at the end of the 18th century. He falls in love with and marries Sal, whose father works on the Thames and apprentices William as a waterman. Things start to turn the corner for William and he sees a way that his life could turn out ok. Unfortunately circumstances change and he ends up in Newgate for stealing, condemned to death. He is granted life, but shipped with his wife and son to Australia. This first part of the book was familiar and nothing new to me - I've read many historical fiction novels about the show more poor and down-trodden in London - but the life the family leads in New South Wales was a different story.

Thornhill fairly quickly buys his pardon and gets enough cash working on the water to have some options. The one he chooses is to break into the uncharted forest with his young family, staking his claim on a hundred acres of land with no regard for the native blacks who already live there. The struggle between him, the other white settlers, and the natives is dark and brutal. I certainly wasn't rooting for Thornhill or the other settlers. Grenville does a convincing job of portraying the mindset of Thornhill, how he could think it was his right to claim this land, without beating the reader over the head with "deep messages". I thought she also kept an eye on how his time in poverty and as a prisoner affected his need to own land and kept him always wanting more. The book is told from the perspective of the white settlers, but she manages to still show how well the native society functioned, even though it was so different from the white society and the settlers really didn't understand or value it at all.

Overall, I thought Grenville handled this time period with a lot of insight and depth. Though the subject matter was hard to read about, I highly recommend this book. show less

“It was a sad scrabbling place, this town of Sydney. The old hands called it The Camp, and in 1806 that was pretty much still what it was: a half-formed temporary sort of place.”

London was a brutal place in the early 19th century and William Thornhill, trying to support a young family, in the boating/shipping trade, had to resort to theft, just to survive. He was caught and sentenced to die. A deal was struck and his sentence was reduced and he was transported to New South Wales, (Australia) with scores of other convicts, to live out the rest of their lives. The most interesting part of the “deal” was, he is able to bring his family along.
The rest of this intoxicating story, is how the Thornhills survive in this “alien” show more environment, trying to delicately coexist, along with an Aboriginal tribe.
This book is a fictionalized account of the author’s ancestor’s, as they struggled, to make a new life, in a new land.
Yes, Grenville is a female author but the first word that comes to mind, to describe her writing style is robust. Her prose is sinewy and scrappy and the narrative moves along at a nice clip. This is my first book by this author and I cannot recommend it high enough. show less

Kate Grenville's novel The secret river is a dramatic story not often told, and a multiple-layered novel. The story begins with the life of the Thornhills, William and Sal, in utter poverty in London. When William is caught stealing his death sentence is changed to deportation of his whole family to New South Wales. After a few years in the colony, like many (ex-) convicts, Thornhill thrives, establishing a life of comfort unbeknownst to people like him in London. While Sal wants to set money aside to return to England, with the risk of losing everything again and falling back into a life of poverty, William Thornhill wants to stay and stake a claim to a piece of land of his fancy. For years he observes the plot and when he finally show more wants to stake his claim it appears to be taken. But William ignores the signs, as apparently the digging does not indicate a claim of fellow settlers, but merely the work of some local aborigines, who do not seem to linger.

From this stage, the novel's plot becomes a metaphor for the colonization of Australia, for the land on which seemingly no-one lingers does actually belong to the native inhabitants. The story of the Thornhill family then develops to its ultimate, very dramatic climax.

The secret river is beautifully written, exploring an intriguing theme and portraying both the colonists and the aborigines in a psychologically completely convincing way. It is a strong story of real interest, not only as a historical novel, but also in its implications to the present.

Highly recommended. show less

A disturbing but exceptionally well-written and researched historical novel about the early settlement of Australia. I was very interested in the background story in London of William Thornhill and was tearing through it but when the family moves to land on the river and tries to settle it, I could see the coming confrontation with Aborigines and I just slowed and stopped for a while. I finally pushed on but it really was horrific when the final massacre of the natives happened. I could not read some of the more graphic parts and I really kept wishing that he had just turned around and left his land. The ending was very enigmatic; Thornhill becomes very successful but it seems all the settlers have a very hollow victory, indeed. I'm show more thinking about Crossing this one, I'm not sure I have the strength to read it again. show less

My first experience of reading Kate Grenville was her Women's Prize winning [b:The Idea of Perfection|38594267|The Idea of Perfection|Kate Grenville|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1518738283l/38594267._SY75_.jpg|807285], which left me rather lukewarm but feeling I should give her another chance, so I was surprised by how much I enjoyed this lively and sometimes brutal historical novel.

The first part is a well-researched evocation of the lives of the poor of London in late 18th century. William Thornhill works his way up from a very poor childhood to become a waterman on the Thames, but loses his fragile prosperity when his father-in-law and former employer dies. Having lost his own boat he is show more forced to work as a hired hand, but can only make ends meet by criminal means, and is eventually caught stealing timber from his employer. A sentence of life is commuted to transportation to Australia.

On arrival in the Sydney settlement his luck begins to turn, firstly his assigned master is his wife, and they earn enough money by selling alcohol and working on the river to buy a boat strong enough to trade on the Hawkesbury river. Here William sees a piece of land he wants to settle, and the real story of how this settlement was stolen from the aboriginals is told - an uneasy give and take coexistence gives way to a savage confrontation that allows Thornhill and his family to prosper and live a life way beyond anything they could achieve in London.

The germ of the story comes from Grenville's own family history - one of her ancestors was a London waterman who was transported, but the real message of the book is what was lost as the land was taken from its supposedly primitive owners. show less