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    The Secret River (NHB Modern Plays)
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    The Secret River (NHB Modern Plays)
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    The Secret River (NHB Modern Plays)
    Ebook184 pages2 hours

    The Secret River (NHB Modern Plays)

    By Kate Grenville

    4/5

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    Currently unavailable

    About this ebook

    William Thornhill arrives in New South Wales a convict from the slums of London. Upon earning his pardon he discovers that this new world offers something he didn't dare dream of: a place to call his own.

    But as he plants a crop and lays claim to the soil on the banks of the Hawkesbury River, he finds that this land is not his to take. Its ancient custodians are the Dharug people.

    A deeply moving and unflinching journey into Australia's dark history, Andrew Bovell's adaptation of Kate Grenville's acclaimed novel The Secret River was first performed by the Sydney Theatre Company in 2013.

    The play had its UK premiere in August 2019, as part of the Edinburgh International Festival, before transferring to the National Theatre, London.

    'The Secret River is a sad book, beautifully written and, at times, almost unbearable with the weight of loss, competing distresses and the impossibility of making amends' Observer on the novel The Secret River

    'A stunning and shattering piece of theatre' - Sunday Telegraph (Australia)

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherNick Hern Books
    Release dateAug 21, 2019
    ISBN9781788502474
    Unavailable
    The Secret River (NHB Modern Plays)
    Author

    Kate Grenville

    Kate Grenville is a prize-winning fiction writer whose novels include Lilian's Story, Dark Places and the Orange Prize award winning novel The Idea of Perfection. She lives in Sydney with her husband, son and daughter.

    Read more from Kate Grenville

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    Reviews for The Secret River (NHB Modern Plays)

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    • 1/5
      So I had to read this book for university.

      And I really didn't like it. It's one of those books that I wish I didn't have to read. I definitely would've put it down were it not for the fact that I had to read it for a course. Even then, I half-listened to the last part of the audiobook, just to get it over and done with. It's such a shame because this is a piece of Australian literature, and I try, as an Australian, to champion as much of its literature as possible.

      I don't like William Thornhill. And I know you're not really supposed to, he's not necessarily a likeable character and stands for a lot of unlikeable people that existed at that time, but ughhhhh Will Thornhill I seriously do not care about you, or your family, or your life. Your innate selfishness and sense of entitlement makes me feel ill, and it's so subversive.

      But, in all honesty, I think I didn't enjoy this because I know so much early Australian and first contact history. (I studied it in university, as well as a few literature courses, and Spanish~). I know how ugly it all was, and still is. I know how hard it is to find pieces (oral or written) by Aboriginal people from that period.

      ... so, this, yeah. I'm still not sure how I feel about this book. It feels like another story, told from the same perspective. Yes, there are Aboriginal characters, they do feature, Grenville does include Australian Aboriginal hunting practices and all of those things, but something about them still feels 'Other'. Of course, Grenville may have felt it wasn't her place to write from an Aboriginal perspective when she doesn't identity as Aboriginal, but there's something about the indigenous characters in this story that makes them almost completely voiceless.

      The writing is fine, the plot is decent, the character arcs and developments are interesting enough, but I cannot ignore how this book makes me feel.

      And so, because of how this book makes me feel, I'll have to give it one star.
    • 5/5
      Well, I can definitely see why this one was put on the shortlist for the Booker Prize this year. This was another one of those books I had to read from cover to cover without interruption -- it was that good. That is not a common experience for me, but every so often one book comes along that makes the read-a-thon necessary. FYI: this is not an uplifting book in any sense of the word, so if that's what you're looking for, don't pick it up. Otherwise, if you don't mind reading with the feeling that "oh, this can't be good" hanging around, you're going to love this book. VERY HIGHLY recommended!Set first in a somewhat Dickensian England, the story centers on William Thornhill, born into poverty and staying there through his youth & early adulthood. He is apprenticed early and ends up picking up passengers & cargo in a boat along the Thames. However, tragedy strikes and the result is that Thornhill is sent to what is now Australia, then the destination for prisoner transport. His wife & child are also allowed to travel there, and it is there that Will and family will start their new life. However, the Thornhills and other new settlers who take land for themselves have to deal with the native population.If that were all there was to this book, you could say, been there, done that, but that's luckily not the case here. What really comes through is Will's ambiguity in how he handles the situation, and this is really the heart of the novel. I won't say more, and will leave that to the reader, but all along, as I read, I was struck by the importance of place and home in this novel. Environment and landscape are major characters on their own which cannot be ignored in this novel.It is a beautiful novel, and now I'm off to find more by this author.
    • 4/5
      The Secret River by Kate Grenville, for me, was a meandering story, winding its way slowly but steadily into a tale of sad success. Will Thornhill, convicted for stealing in England, was sent to Australia with his wife and children to serve out his sentence. Will was a river man and saw the openness of Australia as a way to make a good living –a place where he can be free in every sense of the word.After serving his sentence, Will claimed 100 acres and settled his family along a riverbank occupied by fellow Brits and (understandably) inhospitable natives. His wife, Sal, a strong-willed, sensible woman agreed to this settlement with a promise that they would return to London in five years. But in Will’s heart, he knew that his 100 acres was the only way to carve a living that would provide for his family without the English societal restraints.Grenville’s account of the struggles between the colonists and aboriginal people was eye-opening and compelling. In a modern context, we know what happened of this struggle, but it was mesmerizing and suspenseful to see this story play out in an early 19th century setting.Grenville has an easy writing style and her ability to draw her characters is superb. My only complaint about The Secret River was that it started too slowly for me. I say this with a grain of salt – there was a lot going on in my life when I started this book, which may have ruined my focus. For me, the second half of the book, when Will and his family settled on to their land, was exhilarating and gripping. The ending left me with a sense of sadness that reminded me that colonialism and the greed of a country can leave people heart-broken, even if they seem successful on paper.This is my first Kate Grenville book but certainly not my last. I would recommend The Secret River to readers who enjoy quality literary and historical fiction.
    • 5/5
      Kate Grenville’s novel The Secret River was short listed for the 2006 Man Booker Prize and won the 2006 Commonwealth Prize. Once you’ve read this harrowing and gorgeously constructed story, you will understand why.Set in the early part of the nineteenth century, the novel tells the story of William Thornhill - a boy born into poverty along London’s Thames River who learns to steal early on to ensure his survival. Illiterate and quick to anger, William must learn to sustain himself in the face of hunger and cold. He finds his strength as a waterman, paddling hard against the unforgiving waters of the Thames, and turns away from towering spaces of Christ Church.Then one day, Will gets caught stealing lumber. After a short trial, he is found guilty and sent to a penal colony (along with his young wife Sal and their infant son) in New South Wales. This new land is as beautiful as it is foreign. For Will, the vast and unsettled landscape of New South Wales becomes a place where he believes his dreams may grow.As Will and his ever increasing family begin to scrape out a space of their own along the secret river, there seems to be only one thing standing between Will and his dreams: the native people.Grenville shows the wide gap between English and Aboriginal cultures…and the tremendous misunderstanding fueled by an inability to adequately communicate. Her prose is magnificent as she describes the land of Australia and gradually builds the tension between the characters, before bringing the novel to its inevitable and devastating conclusion. I was completely absorbed by this historical piece of work which is evocative, poetic and pulsing with the life of a time far in the past. It is a novel which explores the moral wilderness of a man in parallel with the physical wilderness of a new country. It is a story about choices, dreams and sacrifice. A pioneer tale which translates well in today’s environment of cultural divides and racial differences, The Secret River is a must read.Highly recommended.
    • 5/5
      The retelling of the early History of Australia, the settlement and the conflicts that it caused with the original inhabitants.
    • 5/5
      In the first couple pages of The Secret River, William Thornhill, a convict who just arrived in Sydney to serve his criminal sentence, confronts an Australian aboriginal. “He took a threatening step forward. Could make out chips of sharp stone in the end of the spear. It would not go through a man neat as a needle. It would rip its way in. Pulling it out would rip all over again.” In a moment the aboriginal disappears into the night. The book turns to William’s childhood in circa 1800 London, and we are left pondering Checkov’s gun. This is a thought provoking and powerful story of Thornhill's climb from destitute poverty and a death sentence to possible wealth. His family tries to make do on an isolated part of New South Wales, Australia during a culture class. The region is populated by a large number of aboriginals, and a small number of idiosyncratic white settlers. The coexistence is tense. When aboriginals make a permanent but peaceful settlement on William's land, and refuse to leave, William can’t decide what to do. Grenville can tell a story and bring the atmosphere to life. This story is gripping throughout and hard to put down even in long stretches where not all that much happens. The times when the story really picks up, it is quite powerful. (Spoiler warning) I curious about William, as he seems to be an odd character who we never really get to know. We first meet a young, industrious man struggling to survive. But, as the story evolves, we find a William who is ambivalent and infuriatingly passive. As he stumbled back in forth in deciding what do, I found myself constantly caught off-guard by his decisions and frustrated by his apparent contradictions. How did we get there? I suppose that the young William was reacting, he never really made any decisions. We don't begin to see the real William until he suddenly has opportunities and decisions to make in Australia. We could judge him lightly and argue that William did not make the decisions he wanted to, but instead, like his thievery, did what he felt needed to be done to get what he wanted or needed. In other words we could argue William acted reluctantly. I'm not so sure that is a correct conclusion. It seemed that William bides his time waiting for an excuse to make awful decision - perhaps decisions he wanted to make all along anyway.
    • 4/5
      I really liked this book. A historical novel set in the 19th century following the life of a Londoner, who is sent to Australia following a relatively minor crime. As an early settler he tries to better himself by travelling inland with his family and lays claim to an area he names after himself. There follows the story of his and others conflicts with the Aboriginies. It really paints a poor picture of how badly Europeans treated the local population, and still do. An excellent read
    • 4/5
      Set in Australia in the early 1800s, The Secret River is the story of William Thornhill, a London riverboat driver sent to Australia after being convicted of a crime. He is accompanied by his wife Sal, who acts as his "master" as required by law. During his twelve month sentence he finds work on a riverboat and, after serving time, buys his own boat and becomes an independent businessman running goods on the river Hawkesbury. Like many "emancipists" of that time, he also stakes his claim to a large parcel of land. The only problem is, the native people claimed it years before. The white settlers demonstrate remarkable hubris, assuming they have a right to the land and shoo-ing the startled natives away.William embraces life as a free man, but Sal longs for home. When he buys a 100-acre parcel, he extracts a promise from Sal to stay for five years. She believes they will then return to London, but William never takes his part of the bargain seriously. Sal notes each passing day by marking a tree with a knife. "The unspoken between them was that she was a prisoner here, marking off the days in her little round of beaten earth, and it was unspoken because she did not want him to feel a jailer. She was, in a manner of speaking, protecting him from herself." (p. 150) The book's title comes from this and other unspoken secrets between the couple. As time passes, more and more goes unspoken: the size of the native camp on their land, the details of atrocities between whites and native people, the prejudiced and often violent behaviors exhibited by their neighbors. But Sal is no fool, and is well aware of the escalating tensions and the danger to her family. Grenville keeps a low- to medium-grade tension running throughout the novel. Some of the tension comes from the very act of survival in the Australian wilderness, and the stress between William and Sal. But the primary conflict is direclty with the native people. While William demonstrates a growing awareness of the natives as human beings, as it says on the book jacket, "to keep his family safe, he must permit terrifying cruelty to come to innocent people." The book's denouement portrays the Thornhills' lives years after this "terrifying cruelty." It is somewhat disappointing, as it's unclear how he and Sal resolved their differences. But the outcome is probably quite true to that period in history. This is a memorable book, well deserving of its Commonwealth Prize and Booker Shortlist recognition.
    • 3/5
      This was a good book, once I got into it my attention was held fast. The most interesting aspect of this book was seeing australia through English eyes. How barren and alien the landscape and weather must have been to all who were transported. Feeling like you were being watched and you couldn't really own what you called your home, the constant sense of danger must have been a horrible way to exist.
    • 4/5
      Tale of the settlement of New South Wales by a population of exiled British criminals. Specifically, the chronicle of William Thornhill and his path from poverty to prison, then freedom. With his wife, Sal, and a growing flock of children, Thornhill journeys to the colony and a convict's life of servitude. A delicate coexistence with the native population dissolves into violence. Very compelling and entertaining.
    • 4/5
      Very interesting and informative about the period when England was transporting criminals to South Wales (Australia). A very goodread. I will check out her other books.
    • 5/5
      Very powerful. Felt as if I were there and made comprehensible the incomprehensible. Grenville mixes poetic description with historical brutality to recreate another time and world.
    • 4/5
      Gripping and poignant story of Thornhill a Thames boatman in the 18th century being in the wrong place at the wrong time changes the course of he and his family life forever. Beautifully descriptive book gives facinating insight into the challenges of early convict settlers in Austrailia and ensuing conflict with Aboriginal people
    • 4/5
      This just became one of my favourite books. The writing is so evocative and the characters so finely developed. William Thornill, an impoverished Londoner in the 1790s, is caught stealing -- something he is forced to do to feed and house his family. His sentence is that he and his family are sent to New South Wales. William works his way to a sort of freedom and believes that he must claim his own piece of land in his new country. Sal, his wife, only dreams of returning to London when they have enough money. The land on the river claimed by the Thornhills is inhabited by other former convicts (many rough and violent) from Britain as well as aborigines. The inevitable struggle between the two groups is bloody and brutal. Grenville does an excellent job of making the reader (this one, at any rate) understand the feelings on both sides - even though the PC side of me felt that I ought to understand only the aborigines. I've heard others complain that the ending of the book is too neat and happy, but I didn't see it that way at all. William and Sal do settle into their new life, but they've become exactly what they ridiculed in London - the 'upper class.' This little slice of irony at the end is essential to bring the story full circle.
    • 5/5
      I loved this book. You follow a family raised in poverty in Great Britain to the penal colony established in Australia. Clear pictures painted of the difficult life in England and the autrocities against the aborigine people. I was swept up into another time and could not put it down
    • 5/5
      Superb book about the early settlement of Australia by convicts from England. Follows the lives of a family. Though provoking interactions with the aborigines. (sp?)
    • 4/5
      Kate Grenville was inspired to write this novel, after delving into her family history. The main character, William Thornhill, is a lighterman on the Thames, and is caught stealing timber. Transported to the new penaly colony of New South Wales, he and his family become early settlers along the Hawkesbury River, north of Sydney. Here they had a very different experience than in the town. They were pretty isolated, and had to eck out their existence from scratch. And more importantly, come to some sort of understanding with the native population - with who they could not communicate!I enjoyed this book, as I too come from a family that settled on the Hawkesbury. Today, most of us will find the parts of this book dealing with interactions with the aboriginal locals disturbing. Sadly, there would be some truth in the way the white people thought of the natives. It made me a bit uncomfortable to wonder how my ancestors would have dealt with the situation. But I will never know......
    • 4/5
      This was a gripping story of conflict during the European settlement of Australia. The slow change in the family's relationship as silence leads to deception is a good reflection of the creeping change of moral inaction to immoral action. The horrific end to the conflict between a set of settlers and the local aboriginal people does not come across as inevitable, but rather as the result of many personal decisions.
    • 4/5
      We enjoyed this book. We had a big discussion about the symbolism of the ending... and felt we wanted to go back and look at that again. There was a sad inevitability about the unfolding of the story. We discussed his unease... There was a feeling of tension throughout. Did we like William? We did like Sel. Again, with this book we found that we wanted to find out more about the historical background to the book - the relationship with original inhabitants of Australia. We experienced frustration reading this book, but wondered whether that was an intended and inevitable consequence of the story and the way it was written.
    • 2/5
      Grenville's depiction of daily life in London and unsettled South Wales is impressive, detailed, and filled with a clear appreciation for both nature and history. In fact, once the story moved to South Wales, I sometimes felt I was reading a piece of nature writing more so than a novel. This, essentially, ends up being the problem with the text. While the story is certainly realistic and detailed, the characters are mere silhouettes from history for the vast majority of the novel. Absolutely, they are believable, but they are also simply drawn, and incredibly flat considering the scope of the novel.At the climax of the work, well into the novel, the characters come more into focus, Grenville's writing of plot and action excelling as she writes what is, fairly clearly, at the heart of the book (and perhaps the reason for the book in its entirety?). Afterward, however, the characters move back to the background, their story only important as it stands as a frontal lens for history.Readers who want the history more than a great read will, most certainly, appreciate the book, and it certainly does give a view to a little enough discussed piece of history. That said, as a novel and as a story to explore for story and character...it's not something I'd recommend, lovely as the writing may be.
    • 4/5
      William Thornhill is sent to jail in London for thieving. He gets the opportunity to choose between a punishment of death in England or exile to Australia, so his wife Sal and their infant are soon on their way to the outback. Once there life is anything but simple. As the couple struggle to survive they are tested on every front.Where Thornhill sees an opportunity his wife sees a lonely life in the wilderness. They decide to take their chances and begin to farm. They are soon introduced to the small community in the area and the contentious relationship between the native aboriginal people and the new English immigrants. Many misunderstandings arise because of the cultural differences between the people. The people have a hard time finding common ground because of their unique view of landownership and very different styles of celebrations.Fear is what drives people to destroy what they don’t understand. The tragic consequences are a stain on the entire country’s history. They haunt the characters long after they become a distant memory. I loved that the story gives a voice to both sides of the issue. Many of the white people didn’t understand the harm they were doing. They were afraid and when they decided to act in fear they were bound to make a bad decision. The persecution of the aboriginal people is shown in a way that allows the reader to understand how things could have escalated so quickly.BOTTOM LINE: The story is a powerful one. It revisits the age old question; do the ends justify the means? For me the characters were a little stale, but I have found myself thinking about different aspects of the plot since I finished it two months ago. It’s not one I’ll reread, but I think it offers a valuable glimpse into the difficult relationship between immigrants and the native people in any country. 
    • 3/5
      There was nothing in this book to make it stand out from all the other stories of a man (sometimes with a wife or a wife and children) who is forced out of his current situation and heads to the wilderness to start a new life. He has to kill a lot of people along the way but makes a success of himself, becomes wealthy and yet has some dissatisfaction.
    • 4/5
      It's better to be a thief than to become a gentleman. Anyway, that's part of the lesson I got from this book. Making a living in 19th century London is pretty tough unless you are a gentleman or willing to commit thievery. And the thieves who are not hanged might be lucky enough to be sent to Australia, to be forgotten, to live or to die, doesn't much matter. This is the story of a kind thief who got a second chance, but to me, became less and less likable as the story moved forward. The look into criminal-populated Australia is interesting. The too-common story of indigenous people being forced out by the newcomers is all too real, and all to sad. While this book dragged in places and could have perhaps been a bit shorter, it is a good bit of historical fiction, entertaining and engaging. I read an ebook edition provided through a Prime membership.
    • 5/5
      Kate Grenville obviously did her historical homework in undertaking this engrossing (and gut-wrenching) yarn of a British convict who builds a new life after being transported to Australia in lieu of a death sentence. Agriculture was the chief aim of British colonialism, and more than trees had to be cleared away to make the vast Australian farms and cattle stations possible. The native population, too, had to be either "civilized" or exterminated. I don't know whether there is a literature category called novel noir, but that's how I would categorize Grenville's effort. In the end, her hero is neither hero nor villain, but falls in that vast category of Everyman, driven by a detached self-interest. Short listed for the Man Booker Prize, The Secret River is alternately exhilarating and sobering, a very fine historical novel.
    • 4/5
      Kate Grenville's novel The secret river is a dramatic story not often told, and a multiple-layered novel. The story begins with the life of the Thornhills, William and Sal, in utter poverty in London. When William is caught stealing his death sentence is changed to deportation of his whole family to New South Wales. After a few years in the colony, like many (ex-) convicts, Thornhill thrives, establishing a life of comfort unbeknownst to people like him in London. While Sal wants to set money aside to return to England, with the risk of losing everything again and falling back into a life of poverty, William Thornhill wants to stay and stake a claim to a piece of land of his fancy. For years he observes the plot and when he finally wants to stake his claim it appears to be taken. But William ignores the signs, as apparently the digging does not indicate a claim of fellow settlers, but merely the work of some local aborigines, who do not seem to linger.From this stage, the novel's plot becomes a metaphor for the colonization of Australia, for the land on which seemingly no-one lingers does actually belong to the native inhabitants. The story of the Thornhill family then develops to its ultimate, very dramatic climax.The secret river is beautifully written, exploring an intriguing theme and portraying both the colonists and the aborigines in a psychologically completely convincing way. It is a strong story of real interest, not only as a historical novel, but also in its implications to the present.Highly recommended.
    • 4/5
      It IS a patch on "Tree of Man"! The cover blurbs compares Kate Grenville with the great Australian novelist Patrick White. There are some echos of Stan Parker making his mark in the bush in 'Tree of Man' with Will Thornhill's settlement on the Hawkesbury a century earlier. Unquestionably White's novel is far better in every respect but Kate Grenville makes a good stab at it. Her novel can't be dismissed as a mere imitator. They are different stories of course but both have the inner monologue of a quiet, moral and industrious man trying to make a home for a family in a wilderness and yet with extremely limited intellectual resources. For just the comparison between to two novels, 'The Secret River' is worth a read.Grenville follows Will from his early 19th Century childhood in the poverty stricken slums of London and his romance and hope with Sal and her father's row boats (wherries) rowing cargo and passengers across the Thames. Things get worse. Will is convicted to hang but gets a reprieve to transportation to New South Wales. In the colony of Sydney Will and Sal make a go of it and Will takes an opportunity to have a piece of land on the Hawkesbury which brings Will and his family, along with other ex convicts, to confront the Aborigines whose land the Hawkesbury is. The denouement happens, the whites have no capacity to understand the black people nor the rhythms. The whites are from the bottom of a impoverished social order hanging on to an imagined notion that as whites they are civilised and the blacks are savages. Then the slaughter happens with ugly and unnecessary vengeance and an epilogue has Will years later a rich man in his stone house overlooking the river.The novel has some difficult problems. The story of Will, from inside his head, is not fully convincing. This has to do with it not being a man who is writing. The quality of prose is good, the plot is valid. It is just that, as a man, I do not experience Will as a fellow man. I wondered why Grenville chose to inhabit Will's consciousness and not that of his wife Sal who is a great character. She is with Will the whole way and this story could be told by the woman.Another difficulty is that book is almost halfway over before Will and family arrive at the river so there isn't enough time for the writer to explore the interface between the blacks and the whites and as a reader I had to bring to this story a lot more information about Australian Aboriginal kinship and relationship to country in order to appreciate the gulf of misunderstanding between the emancipated convicts and the natives.A third problem is that once the slaughter happens the book just ends; apart from the epilogue of Will's glory as a 'gentleman' of New South Wales. He is estranged from his young son who as a child when they first arrived in Sydney, did get to play with the native children and gained a knowledge without prejudice of the native's dignity and expectation of the whites with whom the seems ready to share the place. An epilogue from the son's point of view would have given breadth and depth to the story.I'd give this book 3 and a half stars if there was that option.
    • 3/5
      Slow start - better at end
    • 4/5
      Grenville researched her own family history to tell this thoroughly engrossing tale of one of the first white settlers--a prisoner who sentence was commuted to "Australia" as he and his wife attempt to set up a homestead far away from white settlements. Their negotiations, for better and worse, with the aboriginals were all new to this reader,
    • 4/5
      Deservedly award winning story of early colonial times on the Hawkesbury River. Tells the life of a London waterman, transported to Australia for theft, his ambitions for a better life in Australia and of the fatal consequences for the aboriginal inhabitants. Beautifully and sympathetically written, evokes both the grime of eighteeth century London and the fresh beauty of New South Wales as seen for the first time... I have recently taken a ferry ride on the Hawkesbury river and read this book as a consequence. Deals with the same themes but much much better than the dreadful "English Passengers"!
    • 3/5
      William Thornhill a bargeman on the Thames is transported to Sydney with his young family. Despair is replaced by a slim hope for the future. A rather depressing look at human nature. We have the completely awful characters and those who, in order to hang onto their slim hope for the future compromise what they know is right. It's probably an entirely realistic look at human nature even if I would want it to be wrong. An enjoyable read, I'd be interested in reading more historical fiction set in this time period.