Searching For The Secret River

The Story Behind the Bestselling Novel

Kate Grenville

Searching For The Secret River by Kate Grenville (eBook ISBN 9781847676900) book cover

Available as eBook

The incredible true story behind the Booker Prize shortlisted The Secret River

Kate Grenville’s The Secret River was one of the most loved novels of 2006. Shortlisted for the Booker Prize and awarded the Commonwealth Writer’s Prize, the story of William Thornhill and his journey from London to the other side of the world has moved and exhilarated hundreds of thousands of readers.
Searching for the Secret River tells the story of how Grenville came to write this wonderful book. It is in itself an amazing story, beginning with Grenville’s great-great-great grandfather. Grenville starts to investigate her ancestor, hoping to understand his life. She pursues him from Sydney to London and back, and slowly she begins to realise she must write about him. Searching for the Secret River maps this creative journey into fiction, and illuminates the importance of family in all our lives


“Grenville’s skill is to turn what could have been too obviously a representative moral fable into a rich novel of character.”
sunday Telegraph

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“Grenville, as ever, describes an Australia so overwhelmingly beautiful that readers will lust after its sunbaked soul too.”
daily Telegraph

“We have had to wait five years for The Secret River but the wait has been worth it… Splendidly paced, passionate and disturbing.”
the Times


Kate Grenville

Kate Grenville’s bestselling novel The Secret River received the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize, and was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize and the Miles Franklin Literary Award. The Idea of Perfection won the Orange Prize. Grenville’s other novels include Sarah Thornhill, The Lieutenant, Lilian’s Story, Dark Places and Joan Makes History.

www.kategrenville.com