The Lieutenant - Softcover

Grenville, Kate

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1847673449 ISBN 13: 9781847673442

Publisher: Canongate Books, 2009

Synopsis

As a boy, Daniel Rooke was always an outsider. At school he learned to hide his clever thoughts from his cruel peers; at home his parents were bemused by their bookish son. Daniel could only hope – against all the evidence – that he would one day find his place in life. By 1788, Daniel has become Lieutenant Rooke, astronomer with the First Fleet as it lands on the unknown shores of New South Wales. As the newcomers struggle to establish a settlement for themselves and their cargo of convicts, and attempts are made to communicate with those who already inhabit this land, Rooke sets up his observatory to chart the stars. But the place where they have landed will prove far more revelatory than the night sky. Out on his isolated point, Rooke comes to know the local Aboriginal people, and forges a remarkable connection with one child, which will change his life in ways he never imagined. Based on real events, Kate Grenville’s stunning new novel conveys the poignancy and emotional power of an extraordinary friendship, and how through it a man might find himself: a story that resonates across the oceans and across the centuries.

About this title

Review

"A deft historical tale of discovery . . . [Dawes'] qualities shine lambently through Grenville's elegantly calibrated prose . . . The lasting impression of her novel is not of drama, but of a lovely, watchful stillness: a sort of astronomy of the human heart" (Jane Shilling Sunday Telegraph 2009-01-25)

"Grenville inhabits characters with a rare completeness . . . the reader shares the excitement of his widening consciousness . . . Grenville writers with a poet's sense of rhythm and imagery . . . [and] explores the natural rifts that arise between settlers and native people with a deep understanding of the ambiguities inherent in such conflicts. She occupies the mind of Rooke with a kind of vivid insistence, and his isolation - and moral dilemmas - become ours." (Jay Parini Guardian 2009-01-31)

"Grenville is one of Australia's most popular writers, and this novel is a triumph. Read it at once." (The Times)

"Grenville's prose is clear and clean, employing a gently leading storytelling style that is especially welcome with a foreign land and a foreign time . . . Grenville has brought imagination and compassion to the source of so much of Australia's retroactive hand-wringing. What distinguishes her portrayal of Aboriginal culture is that for once appreciation, sympathy and admiration get the better of impotent guilt." (Lionel Shriver Daily Telegraph)

"A compelling narrative . . . an intelligent, spare, always engrossing imagining of first contact, in which the fictionalization of history allows a comment about current postcolonial race relationships which escapes the didacticism of special pleading." (Patrick Denman Flanery Times Literary Supplement 2009-01-30)

"A particular kind of stillness marks Kate Grenville's characters out as uniquely hers . . . Between the words and among them, this is a profoundly uplifting novel - one that leaves you understanding Rooke's premise: that "Truth [needs] hundreds of words, or none."" (Independent)

"In lucid prose and perfectly measured strides, Grenville lays down her riveting tale. A novel aglow with empathy, its author's capacious visions still deliver an elemental thrill." (Stephanie Cross Daily Mail 2009-01-30)

"The Lieutenant is a lovely example of historical fiction at its best: complex, demanding, and always revealing." (Independent on Sunday 2010-02-07)

"In this novel, morally troubling issues of exploitation and hypocrisy carry reverberations well beyond the convincingly portrayed historical moment." (Sunday Telegraph)

"This engrossing story evokes the excitement of discovery and the beauty of an unspoilt land." (Anthony Gardner Scottish Daily Mail 2009-02-08)

Book Description

The bestselling new novel from the author of the Booker-shortlisted The Secret River

This engrossing story evokes the excitement of discovery and the beauty of an unspoilt land. - Anthony Gardner, Scottish Daily Mail

About this edition

• Publisher: Canongate Books
• Publication date: 2009
• ISBN 10: 1847673449
• ISBN 13: 9781847673442
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 320