funstm
Written on Jan 1, 2008
London, 1807.
William Thornhill, happily wedded to his childhood sweetheart Sal, is a waterman on the River Thames. Life is tough but bearable until William makes a mistake, a bad mistake for which he and his family are made to pay dearly. His sentence: to be transported to New South Wales for the term of his natural life.
The Thornhills arrive in this harsh and alien land that they cannot understand and which feels like a death sentence. But among the convicts there is a rumour that freedom can be bought, that 'unclaimed' land up the Hawkesbury offers an opportunity to start afresh, far away from the township of Sydney. When William takes a hundred acres for himself he is shocked to find Aboriginal people already living on the river. And other recent arrivals - Thomas Blackwood, Smasher Sullivan and Mrs Herring - are finding their own ways to respond to them.
Soon Thornhill, a man neither better nor worse than most, has to make the most difficult decision of his life.
- ISBN10 184195828X
- ISBN13 9781841958286
- Publish Date 7 September 2006 (first published 1 July 2005)
- Publish Status Out of Print
- Out of Print 7 March 2011
- Publish Country GB
- Imprint Canongate Books
- Edition Main
- Format Paperback
- Pages 368
- Language English
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