# The Secret River

Canonical: https://www.bookquiver.com/kate-grenville/the-secret-river/9781405503341

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![The Secret River](https://quivercdn.com/covers/little-brown-audio/kate-grenville/the-secret-river_978-14-0550-334-1.jpg?v=2026-05-19%2007%3A08%3A34)

- Book: [The Secret River](https://www.bookquiver.com/kate-grenville/the-secret-river) ([The Secret River.md](https://www.bookquiver.com/kate-grenville/the-secret-river.md))
- Authors: [Kate Grenville](https://www.bookquiver.com/kate-grenville), [Rupert Penry-Jones](https://www.bookquiver.com/rupert-penry-jones)
- Publisher: little_brown_audio
- Medium: audio
- ISBN: 978-14-0550-334-1
- Published: 2007-04-05
- Language: en_GB
- Binding: Audiobook

## Description

This story is set in London, 1807. William Thornhill, happily wedded to his childhood sweetheart Sal, is a waterman on the River Thames. Life is tough but bearable until William makes a mistake, a bad mistake for which he and his family are made to pay dearly. His sentence: to be transported to New South Wales for the term of his natural life. The Thornhills arrive in this harsh and alien land that they cannot understand and which feels like a death sentence. But, among the convicts there is a rumour that freedom can be bought, that 'unclaimed' land up the Hawkesbury offers an opportunity to start afresh, far away from the township of Sydney. When William takes a hundred acres for himself, he is shocked to find Aboriginal people already living on the river. And other recent arrivals - Thomas Blackwood, Smasher Sullivan and Mrs. Herring - are finding their own ways to respond to them. Soon Thornhill, a man neither better nor worse than most, has to make the most difficult decision of his life...