The incredible true story behind the Booker Prize-shortlisted The Secret River from the Women's Prize-winning Australian novelist Kate Grenville
The story behind The Secret River
"A novel everyone should read." Irish Times
Shortlisted for the 2006 Man Booker Prize
In the summer of 2000, award-winning novelist Kate Grenville decided to open the closed door of her family history. Who was her great-great-great grandfather, Solomon Wiseman, a Thames boatman sent as a convict to Australia in 1806? The answers to this question were revelatory. From the bones of his life a novel slowly evolved: The Secret River.
This is the story of Grenville's investigation, a memoir of the writing process through false starts, wrong turns and exhilarating breakthroughs. It is a remarkable journey of discovery around the globe, across the generations and into fiction.
"Here is someone who can really write."
Peter Carey
