MobileRead Forums - View Single Post - Literary The Secret River by Kate Grenville

Bookpossum · 11-15-2013, 04:22 PM

Great post sun surfer and I'm so glad the book won you over.

I believe the genesis of the book was the time when we had walks for reconciliation. Kate Grenville was participating in the walk across Sydney Harbour Bridge and at one stage was walking alongside an Aboriginal woman of about her own age. She knew that she had ancestors stretching back to the early stages of the colony, and it led her to speculate on whether any of her ancestors might have been a part of what happened between those early settlers and the ancestors of the woman next to her.

ETA: For anyone wanting to read anything more about Aboriginal/settler relations, I can thoroughly recommend "Remembering Babylon" by David Malouf, which I have just read. It is quite different from "The Secret River", a meditation on language and lost opportunities. It is beautifully written and heart-breaking.

11-15-2013, 04:22 PM	#52
Bookpossum Snoozing in the sun Posts: 10,146 Karma: 115423645 Join Date: Jul 2011 Location: Melbourne, Australia Device: iPad Mini, Kobo Touch	Great post sun surfer and I'm so glad the book won you over. I believe the genesis of the book was the time when we had walks for reconciliation. Kate Grenville was participating in the walk across Sydney Harbour Bridge and at one stage was walking alongside an Aboriginal woman of about her own age. She knew that she had ancestors stretching back to the early stages of the colony, and it led her to speculate on whether any of her ancestors might have been a part of what happened between those early settlers and the ancestors of the woman next to her. ETA: For anyone wanting to read anything more about Aboriginal/settler relations, I can thoroughly recommend "Remembering Babylon" by David Malouf, which I have just read. It is quite different from "The Secret River", a meditation on language and lost opportunities. It is beautifully written and heart-breaking. Last edited by Bookpossum; 11-15-2013 at 04:29 PM.