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The Secret River
- Narrated by: Paul Blackwell
- Length: 10 hrs and 44 mins
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Publisher's summary
In 1806 William Thornhill, a man of quick temper and deep feelings, is transported from the slums of London to New South Wales for the term of his natural life. With his wife, Sal, and their children he arrives in a harsh land he cannot understand. But the colony can turn a convict into a free man. Eight years later Thornhill sails up the Hawkesbury to claim 100 acres for himself.
Aboriginal people already live on that river. And other recent arrivals - Thomas Blackwood, Smasher Sullivan, and Mrs Herring - are finding their own ways to respond to them. Thornhill, a man neither better nor worse than most, soon has to make the most difficult choice of his life.
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Robert Jackson Bennett makes a stunning debut with this deliciously dark tale sure to hold readers in its menacing thrall. The grinding poverty brought on by the Great Depression is nowhere more apparent than in the untold thousands looking for work along America’s railroad system. But one man haunting the rail camps has been moved by an entirely different brand of desperation: revenge.
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From the Cormac McCarthy Playbook
- By J. Cons on 08-09-10
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The Canal Bridge
- A Novel of Ireland, Love, and the First World War
- By: Tom Phelan
- Narrated by: Paul Nugent
- Length: 8 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
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In 1913, before there is a rumor of war in Europe, Matthias Wrenn and Con Hatchel, lifelong friends from Ballyrannel in the Irish midlands, decide to see the world at the expense of the king of England and join the British army. A year later, while en route to India, their troop ship is recalled and they soon find themselves in the European slaughterhouse that was World War I.
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Beautiful, disturbing and unforgettable
- By Kathy on 05-25-16
By: Tom Phelan
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Wolf Winter
- By: Cecilia Ekback
- Narrated by: Alyssa Bresnahan
- Length: 12 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
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Swedish Lapland, 1717. Maija, her husband Paavo and her daughters Frederika and Dorotea arrive from their native Finland, hoping to forget the traumas of their past and put down new roots in this harsh but beautiful land. Above them looms BlackAsen, a mountain whose foreboding presence looms over the valley and whose dark history seems to haunt the lives of those who live in its shadow.
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So atmospheric, it hurts
- By Bookmarque on 08-24-15
By: Cecilia Ekback
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Thousand Pieces of Gold
- By: Ruthanne Lum McCunn
- Narrated by: Emily Zeller
- Length: 6 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
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Lalu Nathoy's father called his thirteen-year-old daughter his treasure, his "thousand pieces of gold," yet when famine strikes northern China in 1871, he is forced to sell her. Polly, as Lalu is later called, is sold to a brothel, sold again to a slave merchant bound for America, auctioned to a saloonkeeper, and offered as a prize in a poker game. This biographical novel is the extraordinary story of one woman's fight for independence and dignity in the American West.
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Disjointed account of an extraordinary life
- By David on 05-01-15
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Arcadia
- By: Lauren Groff
- Narrated by: Andrew Garman
- Length: 11 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
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Lauren Groff’s acclaimed debut novel The Monsters of Templeton was short-listed for the Orange Prize. Her second novel, Arcadia opens in the late 1960s with a group of young idealists forming a commune in western New York State. Into this group is born Bit, who grows into a quiet, distant man. Over the course of 50 years, Bit witnesses the utopia crumble and the world change in unimaginable ways.
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Luscious prose, intimate and realistic
- By Kathleen on 03-22-12
By: Lauren Groff
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The Survivors
- By: Kate Furnivall
- Narrated by: Imogen Church
- Length: 11 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
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Germany, 1945. Klara Janowska and her daughter, Alicja, have walked for weeks to get to Graufeld Displaced Persons camp. In the cramped, dirty, dangerous conditions they, along with 3,200 others, are the lucky ones. They have survived and will do anything to find a way back home. But when Klara recognises a man in the camp from her past, a deadly game of cat and mouse begins. He knows exactly what she did during the war to save her daughter. She knows his real identity. What will be the price of silence? And will either make it out of the camp alive?
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Really interesting
- By Karen on 11-10-18
By: Kate Furnivall
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The Ninth Rain
- The Winnowing Flame Trilogy, Book 1
- By: Jen Williams
- Narrated by: Jot Davies
- Length: 20 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
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Jen Williams, acclaimed author of The Copper Cat trilogy, featuring The Copper Promise, The Iron Ghost and The Silver Tide, returns with the first in a blistering new trilogy. The great city of Ebora once glittered with gold. Now its streets are stalked by wolves. Tormalin the Oathless has no taste for sitting around waiting to die while the realm of his storied ancestors falls to pieces - talk about a guilt trip. Better to be amongst the living, where there are taverns full of women and wine.
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Couldn’t put it down!
- By Renae on 09-09-22
By: Jen Williams
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Drums Along the Mohawk
- By: Walter D. Edmonds
- Narrated by: Mark Bramhall
- Length: 21 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
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Drums along the Mohawk, Walter D. Edmonds' masterpiece, is not only the best historical novel about upstate New York since James Fenimore Cooper, it was also number one on the bestseller list for two years, only yielding to the epic Gone with the Wind. This is the story of the forgotten pioneers of the Mohawk Valley during the Revolutionary War. Here Gilbert Martin and his young wife struggled and lived and hoped.
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Wonderful
- By Robert on 09-06-15
What listeners say about The Secret River
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Anonymous User
- 12-17-18
Sad but good
Most of this book was really great - I liked the parts describing life in England to how someone came to be sent to Australia and what life was like once they arrived. It gets quite depressing at the end but it had. Will is a very real character that isn’t perfect and like us all, it shows how just thinking something isn’t good enough if your actions don’t match.
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- Merlin
- 07-25-17
Vivid, well-told, life-story novel
I found this to be a very good conventional novel, strong all round and entertaining. It tells the story of a poor boy from London ho ends up seeking his fortune in Australia. The dialogue is excellent, and the narrator is superb.
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- henhao
- 03-01-16
Powerful yet heartbreaking. An absolute must for every Australian
This is a powerful yet tragic tale and an absolute must-read for every Australian. Heartbreakingly informative about the colonisation/invasion of this land, both sides desperate for the other to move on. We recently saw the production on stage in Brisbane - again, a must-see if you have the chance. I also recommend watching Stan Grant's speech delivered in January 2016.
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3 people found this helpful
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- faith cowgill
- 04-16-18
Why the music?
The Music that plays in between the chapters is annoying . Maybe if it had something to do with the story, a story about Australia playing the didgeridoo… It might mean something, but it’s the same music this book house uses in between all of its audiobooks. Just get rid of it, that would be much better
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- Andrew
- 05-07-18
Fantastic book
The book is fantastic. A great yarn in the Tradition of Dickens collides with the ugly reality of colonialism. The writing is superb.
The narrator is simply brilliant. The best narrators add so much life and heart to a book. I can’t recommend this reading highly enough.
To the indigenous people of Australia. You were robbed and murdered and called uncivilized criminals. It is impossible to imagine what could ever undo this injustice. It is heartbreaking to see how little has been done.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Regina Carol
- 11-03-19
Life as we make it
I found the story dark and heavy. The trials of people who encountered hardships and hateful people. I’m not sure I would have been a person to survive it.
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- Sutapa Chattopadhyay
- 12-09-22
Magnificent historical fiction on settlers of NSW,
If there is any story that beautifully captures the pain and agony of a prisoner from London forcibly relocated to Sydney, New South Wales, this story is it. This is a story of guts, risk-taking, heart, love, courage and much more. From the slums of London to back breaking labor in New South Wales, to being freed, ex-prisoner William Thornhill triumphs over every adversity.
But there is another story within this story, that of the natives of that region who are nomads, living on fishing and foraging and who are forced to leave the land where they were born by the white immigrants. This story is also told from the viewpoint of the protagonist, William and his wife Sal and children.
In the beginning, this family takes a' live and let live' approach and does well, until the tribe attacks and kills their neighbors and destroys their crops. There is a bloody and brutal confrontation in which many tribe members are killed and removed from the land.
William experiences a pyrrhic victory even though he becomes very rich after this encounter. One of his sons is estranged from him. But as with other emigration and immigration stories, this is also what happens to many immigrants, and it is not unusual to be changed by brutal experiences, moments of madness all ensuring one's own survival at any cost.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Jacqueline Woiso
- 01-16-19
boring
I'm 17 and this book was an assignment but for most of it was dragging on too long for me
if you're a man of imagery go ahead otherwise there's better things to read
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- Tracey
- 09-22-15
it should stay secret
This book wasn’t for you, but who do you think might enjoy it more?
someone that likes a boring flat narrator and a rubbish storyline
What was most disappointing about Kate Grenville’s story?
it is the worst portrail of convict settelment that didn,t get to shack up with wife and kids when first transported
Who would you have cast as narrator instead of Paul Blackwell?
i don,t think you could narrate this story better
If you could play editor, what scene or scenes would you have cut from The Secret River?
the start and didn,t get past first chapters
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2 people found this helpful
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- Robert J Frith
- 05-06-23
Bit of a plodder
There are some great passages but on the whole it was a pretty straight, chronological tale of a Londoner, William Thornbill, who is transported as a convict. Most of the characters are one dimensional. The idea that Thornbill's wife is transported as well and becomes his boss when he is ticketed seemed a bit of a stretch, but what do I know, perhaps this happened?
The beginning of the book drags and the last couple of chapters feel rushed and sentimental. The rift between Thornbill and his son would seem ripe for some exploration... but... nothing.
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