Description
By the author of Schlinder’s List and Woman of the Inner Sea
The time is the start of the century. The place is a seemingly peaceful Australian town on the banks of the Macleay River in New South Wales. Here Tim Shea has come from distant Ireland to build a new life free of the crippling poverty and bleak horizons of the past. But he finds that this land of opportunity is a land of perilous choices. As a good man in a less than perfect world, he also finds that the price of goodness can be painfully high.
Thomas Keneally has created one of the most wonderfully realized characters in modern fiction, forced to confront questions of duty and desire, race and sex, class and caste, politics and religion, in a town that becomes a vividly moving microcosm of humanity’s strengths and weaknesses, tragedies and triumphs. A River Town is engrossing, funny, and touching – vintage Keneally.
“A novel of a time with moral question disturbingly like our own . . . a fictional world at once harsh and sensuous and supremely engaging to read about.” – Boston Globe
“A wonderful piece of writing, a joyously exact and haunting feat of the imagination . . . crammed with magnificent portraits . . . A River Town turns steadily into a chilling and suspenseful mystery, as absorbing a page-turner as this master story-teller has ever written . . . It is the best book of the year.” – San Francisco Chronicle
About the Author
Thomas Michael Keneally, AO (born 7 October 1935) is an Australian novelist, playwright and author of non-fiction. He is best known for writing Schindler's Ark, the Booker Prize-winning novel of 1982, which was inspired by the efforts of Poldek Pfefferberg, a Holocaust survivor. The book would later be adapted to Steven Spielberg'sSchindler's List(1993), which won the Academy Award for Best Picture.Often published under the nameTom Keneallyin Australia.Life and Career:Born in Sydney, Keneally was educated at St Patrick's College, Strathfield, where a writing prize was named after him. He entered St Patrick's Seminary, Manly to train as a Catholic priest but left before his ordination. He worked as a Sydney schoolteacher before his success as a novelist, and he was a lecturer at the University of New England (1968–70). He has also written screenplays, memoirs and non-fiction books.Keneally was known as "Mick" until 1964 but began using the name Thomas when he started publishing, after advice from his publisher to use what was really his first name. He is most famous for hisSchindler's Ark(1982) (later republished asSchindler's List), which won the Booker Prize and is the basis of the filmSchindler's List(1993). Many of his novels are reworkings of historical material, although modern in their psychology and style.Keneally has also acted in a handful of films. He had a small role inThe Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith(based on his novel) and played Father Marshall in the Fred Schepisi movie,The Devil's Playground(1976) (not to be confused with a similarly-titled documentary by Lucy Walker about the Amish rite of passage calledrumspringa).In 1983, he was made an Officer of the Order of Australia (AO). He is an Australian Living Treasure.He is a strong advocate of the Australian republic, meaning the severing of all ties with the British monarchy, and published a book on the subject inOur Republic(1993). Several of his Republican essays appear on the web site of the Australian Republican Movement.Keneally is a keen supporter of rugby league football, in particular the Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles club of the NRL. He made an appearance in the rugby league drama filmThe Final Winter(2007).In March 2009, the Prime Minister of Australia, Kevin Rudd, gave an autographed copy of Keneally's Lincoln biography to President Barack Obama as a state gift.Most recently Thomas Keneally featured as a writer in the critically acclaimed Australian drama,Our Sunburnt Country.Thomas Keneally's nephew Ben is married to the former NSW Premier, Kristina Keneally.
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