The Secret River

Kate Grenville

Jun 2015 · Bolinda · Narrated by Paul Blackwell

About this audiobook

In 1806 William Thornhill, a man of quick temper and deep feelings, is transported from the slums of London to New South Wales for the term of his natural life. With his wife Sal and their children he arrives in a harsh land he cannot understand. But the colony can turn a convict into a free man. Eight years later Thornhill sails up the Hawkesbury to claim a hundred acres for himself. Aboriginal people already live on that river. And other recent arrivals - Thomas Blackwood, Smasher Sullivan and Mrs Herring - are finding their own ways to respond to them. Thornhill, a man neither better nor worse than most, soon has to make the most difficult choice of his life.

About the author

Kate Grenville is one of Australia's finest writers. Her early works have become modern classics and are admired by critics and readers around the world. Her 1992 novel, The Idea of Perfection, was a bestseller and winner of the Orange Prize for Fiction, Britain's most valuable literary award. In 2006 Kate Grenville was awarded the Commonwealth Writers' Prize and the NSW Premier's Literary Award for The Secret River, and the novel was also shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize. Kate lives in Sydney with her family. Grenville's A Room Made of Leaves won the Douglas Stewart Prize for Non-Fiction at the 2021 New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards.

Paul Blackwell is a well-known Australian stage actor and occasional film actor. He has appeared in many productions from some of Australia's best-known theatre companies, including Company B, Sydney Theatre Company, State Theatre Company of South Australia, Patch Theatre and Opera Australia. He has appeared in several films, though often in small parts. His recent film appearances include Candy, December Boys, Hey Hey its Esther Blueburger and the silent film Dr. Plonk.