Kate Grenville Libri

Nance Gee (nee. Russell) was a week short of her sixth birthday when she and Frank were roused out of bed in the dark and lifted into the buggy, squashed in with bedding, the cooking pots rattling around in the back, and her mother shouting back towards the house: "Goodbye, Rothsay, I hope I never see you again!" When Kate Grenville's mother died she left behind many fragments of memoir. These were the starting point for One Life, the story of a woman whose life spanned a century of tumult and change. In many ways Nance's story echoes that of many mothers and grandmothers, for whom the spectacular shifts of the twentieth century offered a path to new freedoms and choices. In other ways Nance was exceptional. In an era when women were expected to have no ambitions beyond the domestic, she ran successful businesses as a registered pharmacist, laid the bricks for the family home, and discovered her husband's secret life as a revolutionary. One Life is an act of great imaginative sympathy, a daughter's intimate account of the patterns in her mother's life. It is a deeply moving homage by one of Australia's finest writers.

This practical workbook by the Orange Prize-winning, Booker Prize-shortlisted author of The Secret River provides realistic ideas and suggestions to inspire and support writers and aspiring writers.

This is Albion Gidley Singer at the pen, a man with a weakness for a good fact. The first fact is always the hardest: you have to begin somewhere, and such is the nature of this intractable universe that the only thing you can start with is yourself. Dark Places, a companion novel to Lilian’s Story, is the tale of a man with a comically grand exterior who believes he has the right, and the duty, to conquer the mocking flesh of any woman. Even his own daughter.

In 1806 London thief William Thornhill is transported to Australia. Once there he earns his freedom and settles on what looks like empty land. But the land belongs to the Darug people, and they're prepared to defend it. He can't go back, but how can he go forward? The choice Thornhill makes will haunt him for the rest of his life. Inspired by the author's family history, The Secret River is a classic novel about our nation's past.

Kate Grenville had always associated perfume with elegance and beauty. Then the headaches started. Like perhaps a quarter of the population, Grenville reacts badly to the artificial fragrances around us: other people’s perfumes, and all those scented cosmetics, cleaning products and air fresheners. On a book tour in 2015, dogged by ill health, she started wondering: what’s in fragrance? Who tests it for safety? What does it do to people? The more Grenville investigated, the more she felt this was a story that should be told. The chemicals in fragrance can be linked not only to short-term problems like headaches and asthma, but to long-term ones like hormone disruption and cancer. Yet products can be released onto the market without testing. They’re regulated only by the same people who make and sell them. And the ingredients don’t even have to be named on the label. This book is based on careful research into the science of scent and the power of the fragrance industry. But, as you’d expect from an acclaimed novelist, it’s also accessible and personal. The Case Against Fragrance will make you see—and smell—the world differently.

In the final book of a trilogy that began with her bestselling novel, "The Secret River," Commonwealth Prize-winner Kate Grenville returns to the youngest daughter of the Thornhills and her quest to uncover, at her peril, the family's hidden legacy. Sarah is the youngest child of William Thornhill, the pioneer at the center of "The Secret River." Unknown to her, her father--an uneducated ex-convict from London--has built his fortune on the blood of Aboriginal people. With a fine stone house and plenty of money, Thornhill has re-invented himself. As he tells his daughter, he "never looks back," and Sarah grows up learning not to ask about the past. Instead her eyes are on handsome Jack Langland, whom she's loved since she was a child. Their romance seems destined, but the ugly secret in Sarah's family is poised to ambush them both. As she did with" The Secret River," Grenville once again digs into her own family history to tell a story about the past that still resonates today. Driven by the captivating voice of the illiterate Sarah--at once headstrong, sympathetic, curious, and refreshingly honest--this is an unforgettable portrait of a passionate woman caught up in a historical moment of astonishing turmoil.

SHORTLISTED FOR THE WALTER SCOTT PRIZE FOR HISTORICAL FICTION - the new novel from the Women's Prize for Fiction winner and Man Booker prize-shortlisted author of The Secret RiverIt is 1788. When twenty-one-year-old Elizabeth marries the arrogant and hot-headed soldier John Macarthur, she soon realises she has made a terrible mistake. Forced to travel with him to New South Wales, she arrives to find Sydney Town a brutal, dusty, hungry place of makeshift shelters, failing crops, scheming and rumours. All her life she has learned to fold herself up small. Now, in the vast landscapes of an unknown continent, Elizabeth has to discover a strength she never imagined, and passions she could never express.Inspired by the real life of a remarkable woman, this is an extraordinarily rich, beautifully wrought novel of resilience, courage and the mystery of human desire.

The first book by the Booker Prize-shortlisted author of The Secret River

Beginning writers will find a practical guide that enhances their skills through a structured six-step writing process, which includes brainstorming, outlining, drafting, revising, and editing. The casual tone and straightforward advice make writing accessible to all. Visual illustrations complement the text, while an example section showcases the development of both a creative piece and an essay. With additional tips on grammar and a summary for quick reference, this resource is perfect for high school students and writers of any age.