A River Town

By Thomas Keneally

Fleeing to Australia to escape the repressive life of British-controlled Ireland, Tim Shea is alarmed by his new home's equally stifling social order and its inclination towards prejudice. By the author of Schindler's List.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
• Release date: Nov 16, 2011
• ISBN: 9780307800633

Thomas Keneally

Thomas Keneally began his writing career in 1964 and has published thirty-three novels since, most recently Crimes of the Father, Napoleon’s Last Island, Shame and the Captives, and the New York Times bestselling The Daughters of Mars. He is also the author of Schindler’s List, which won the Booker Prize in 1982, The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith, Gossip from the Forest, and Confederates, all of which were shortlisted for the Booker Prize. He has also written several works of nonfiction, including his boyhood memoir Homebush Boy, The Commonwealth of Thieves, and Searching for Schindler. He is married with two daughters and lives in Sydney, Australia.

Reviews for A River Town

[lamour_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Tim Shea has left Ireland for Australia at the turn of the Century to escape the strict social confines of that country. However in Australia he runs into questions about his loyalty to the Empire, the reason behind his acts of kindness and his concern for a murdered young woman whose identity has not been discovered which leads to harassment from the local constable.When he is the only man in town when a local farmer is critically injured and is honoured as a hero for helping the man's children, he becomes the focus of attention of those who dislike the Irish. The town leaders delay paying their bills and damage his reputation with his suppliers. The farmer's girl he helped becomes a problem for him and eventually commits suicide while with his family.There is as well the East Indian paddler who becomes his friend and savior and provides some of the humour in the story. Keneally based some of the novel on his grandfather's experiences.