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The Secret River

The Secret River
TheSecretRiver.jpg
First edition
Author Kate Grenville
Country Australia
Language English
Genre Historical fiction
Publisher Text Publishing, Australia
Publication date
2005
Media type hardback
Pages 334
ISBN
OCLC 70061296
823/.914 22
LC Class PR9619.3.G73 S53 2005
Preceded by The Idea of Perfection
Followed by Searching for The Secret River

The Secret River, written by Kate Grenville in 2005, is a historical novel about an early 19th-century Englishman transported to Australia for theft. The story explores what may have happened when Europeans colonised land already inhabited by Aboriginal people. The book has been compared to Thomas Keneally's The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith and to Peter Carey's True History of the Kelly Gang for its style and historical theme.

The Secret River was inspired by Grenville's desire to understand the history of her ancestor Solomon Wiseman, who settled on the Hawkesbury River at the area now known as Wisemans Ferry. Her inspiration to understand this came from her taking part in the 28 May 2000 Reconciliation Walk across Sydney Harbour Bridge during which she realised that she didn't know much about the early interactions between the settlers and the Aboriginal people. Initially intended to be a work of non-fiction about Wiseman, the book eventually became a fictional work based on her research into Wiseman but not specifically about Wiseman himself. The novel took five years and twenty drafts to complete.

The novel is dedicated to the Aboriginal people of Australia. Although sparking hostility from some historians it received a positive response from many Aboriginal people, Grenville has said "they recognise that the book is my act of acknowledgement, my way of saying: this is how I'm sorry".

The Secret River has been adapted for the stage by Andrew Bovell; the play was presented by the Sydney Theatre Company in January 2013. A TV adaptation was made in 2015 by Ruby Entertainment with support from the Australian Broadcasting Corporation and Screen Australia; and was aired in June of that year by ABC TV as a two-part miniseries.


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