Imprint
- Sceptre
- Sceptre
Fiction, Modern & contemporary fiction (post c 1945), Historical fiction
Reissued to coincide with the 50th anniversary of Keneally's first novel.
In turn-of-the-century Australia, Tim Shea supports his young family by running a general store in a remote riverside town, where he finds the same hypocrisy and snobbery which made him emigrate from Ireland, and suffers a series of misfortunes which take him to the brink of disaster. Capturing the spirit of the times, this is the mesmerising tale of a flawed hero whose stubborn integrity is nearly his undoing.
Praise for A River Town
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The work of a great storyteller - The Times
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A joy to read . . . His skilful prose which seems effortlessly to capture the rhythms and cadences of at least six different emigrant races . . . his essential humanity which enables him to examine misery and horror without ever losing his gift for hope and his old-fashioned insistence on a rattling good plot, crammed full of drama, will ensure the reader is thoroughly entertained - Evening Standard
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A masterpiece - Literary Review
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Keneally makes us feel, very movingly, the intelligence and imaginative openness that lie deeper than Tim's prejudices and inarticulacies . . . a novel [of] great vitality and charm - The Sunday Times
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A remarkably vivid and moving portrayal of a hostile world where good struggles to shine through - Time Out
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A great read - Mail on Sunday
Thomas Keneally
Thomas Keneally, of Irish extraction, was brought up in Australia and still lives in Sydney. His novels include The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith, Confederates (which first led him to study nineteenth century American history). Schindler's Ark was later turned into as remarkable a film by Steven Spielberg under the title Schindler's List.
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