Sarah Thornhill
-
-
4.5 • 2 Ratings
-
-
- $11.99
Publisher Description
When The Secret River, a novel about frontier violence in early Australia, appeared in 2005, it became an immediate bestseller—but it also caused controversy for its unflinching look at Australia’s history. It has since been published all over the world and translated into twenty languages. The follow-up novel, The Lieutenant, continued Grenville’s exploration of the story of first settlement and once again caused controversy in her homeland. Now Sarah Thornhill brings the trilogy to an emotionally explosive conclusion.
Sarah is the youngest daughter of William Thornhill, the pioneer at the centre of The Secret River. Unknown to her, her father—an illiterate ex-convict from London—has built his fortune on the blood of Aboriginal people. With a fine stone house and plenty of money, Thornhill is a man who’s reinvented 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 idyllic, destined, but the ugly secret in Sarah’s family is poised to ambush both of them.
With Sarah Thornhill, Grenville uses family history to tell a story about the past that’s also about the present and its dilemmas. Driven by the captivating voice of the illiterate Sarah—at once headstrong, sympathetic, curious and refreshingly honest—this is an unforgettable portrait of a strong and passionate woman caught up in a historical moment that has left an indelible mark on the present.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
The final novel in Grenville's trilogy about the British colonization of New South Wales continues her exploration of the savagery with which emancipated convict settlers ousted the indigenous peoples. The novel, which can be read as a stand-alone, is told from the point-of-view of Sarah, the youngest child of William Thornhill, the conflicted protagonist in The Secret River. From early childhood, Sarah senses her father's troubles, and eventually discovers their terrible source. Her disillusionment will highlight the novel's central question: is it possible to both thrive as an individual and sufficiently atone for the sins of one's ancestors? Sarah's affair with her brother's closest friend, whose mother was an Aborigine, is squashed by Sarah's wicked stepmother, more clich than character. Sarah then marries an English Protestant from Ireland, whose background Grenville exploits nicely: usurpers can be found on any continent. Lyrical passages light up the narrative, and Grenville's profound themes make it tempting to ignore the novel's flaws. Sarah lacks the complexity and credibility of protagonists in the earlier novels, and Grenville postpones the reveal of the family's secrets for too long, perplexingly, as they were already revealed in The Secret River.
