Thomas Keneally

Father Frank Docherty has had his run-ins with the church authorities: in the early 1970s, he was expelled from the Sydney archdiocese for preaching against the Vietnam War and has lived in Canada as a monk ever since. Twenty-five years later, back in Australia to give a lecture about celibacy and paedophile priests, he comes across an ex-nun who claims to have been abused by a now eminent cleric. If Docherty is to help her, he will be up against an institution bent on avoiding scandal. What is more, the accused man's sister is the woman Docherty nearly broke his vows for long ago. This searing, impassioned novel captures the Catholic Church at a pivotal moment: when it tried to silence its victims, wreaking lasting damage not only on innocents but on itself.

The bestselling author of Schindler's List and The Daughters of Mars returns with an "insightful and nimble...consistently fresh and engaging" (The New York Times Book Review) novel about the remarkable friendship between a quick-witted young woman and one of history's most intriguing figures, Napoleon Bonaparte, during the final years of his life in exile on St. Helena.In October 1815, after his defeat at the Battle of Waterloo, Napoleon Bonaparte was sent to live the remainder of his life in exile on the remote Southern Atlantic island of St. Helena. There, on what he called "the cursed rock," with no chance of escape, he found an unexpected ally: a spirited British teenager named Betsy Balcombe who lived on the island with her family. While Napoleon waited for his own accommodations to be made livable, the Balcombe family played host to the infamous exile, a decision that would have far-reaching consequences for them all. In Napoleon's Last Island, based on a true story, acclaimed author Thomas Keneally re-creates Betsy's powerful and complex friendship with the man dubbed The Great Ogre, her clashes and alliances with his remaining courtiers, and her uneasy journey to adulthood as she begins to see the imperfections and weaknesses of human nature. As he brings a fascinating period vividly to life, Keneally shines a fresh light on one of history's most enigmatic, charismatic figures. "The book is a complex and mesmerizing success," raves the Christian Science Monitor, hailing it as "a masterpiece in miniature...unfailingly great reading and] testimony to the fact that Keneally is our greatest living practitioner of historical fiction."

On the nights of July 16 and 17, 1942, French police rounded up eleven-year-old Joseph Weismann, his family, and 13,000 other Jews. After being held for five days in appalling conditions in the Vélodrome d'Hiver stadium, Joseph and his family were transported by cattle car to the Beaune-la-Rolande internment camp and brutally separated: all the adults and most of the children were transported on to Auschwitz and certain death, but 1,000 children were left behind to wait for a later train. The French guards told the children left behind that they would soon be reunited with their parents, but Joseph and his new friend, Joe Kogan, chose to risk everything in a daring escape attempt. After eluding the guards and crawling under razor-sharp barbed wire, Joseph found freedom. But how would he survive the rest of the war in Nazi-occupied France and build a life for himself? His problems had just begun. Until he was 80, Joseph Weismann kept his story to himself, giving only the slightest hints of it to his wife and three children. Simone Veil, lawyer, politician, President of the European Parliament, and member of the Constitutional Council of France—herself a survivor of Auschwitz—urged him to tell his story. In the original French version of this book and in Roselyne Bosch's 2010 film La Rafle, Joseph shares his compelling and terrifying story of the Roundup of the Vél' d'Hiv and his escape. Now, for the first time in English, Joseph tells the rest of his dramatic story in After the Roundup.

On the nights of July 16 and 17, 1942, French police rounded up eleven-year-old Joseph Weismann, his family, and 13,000 other Jews. After being held for five days in appalling conditions in the Vélodrome d'Hiver stadium, Joseph and his family were transported by cattle car to the Beaune-la-Rolande internment camp and brutally separated: all the adults and most of the children were transported on to Auschwitz and certain death, but 1,000 children were left behind to wait for a later train. The French guards told the children left behind that they would soon be reunited with their parents, but Joseph and his new friend, Joe Kogan, chose to risk everything in a daring escape attempt. After eluding the guards and crawling under razor-sharp barbed wire, Joseph found freedom. But how would he survive the rest of the war in Nazi-occupied France and build a life for himself? His problems had just begun. Until he was 80, Joseph Weismann kept his story to himself, giving only the slightest hints of it to his wife and three children. Simone Veil, lawyer, politician, President of the European Parliament, and member of the Constitutional Council of France—herself a survivor of Auschwitz—urged him to tell his story. In the original French version of this book and in Roselyne Bosch's 2010 film La Rafle, Joseph shares his compelling and terrifying story of the Roundup of the Vél' d'Hiv and his escape. Now, for the first time in English, Joseph tells the rest of his dramatic story in After the Roundup.

On the island of St Helena in the south Atlantic ocean, Napoleon spends his last years in exile. It is a hotbed of gossip and secret liaisons, where a blind eye is turned to relations between colonials and slaves.The disgraced emperor is subjected to vicious and petty treatment by his captors, but he forges an unexpected ally: a rebellious British girl, Betsy, who lives on the island with her family and becomes his unlikely friend.Based on fact, Napoleon's Last Island is the surprising story of one of history's most enigmatic figures and a British family who dared to associate with him. It is a tale of vengeance, duplicity and loyalty, and of a man whose charisma made him dangerous to the end.

"If the legendary Schindler's List was not enough to showcase Thomas Keneally's literary mastery, then this novel] surely will" (New York Daily News) as the Booker Prize-winning author reimagines from all sides the drastic true events of the night more than one thousand Japanese POWs staged the largest and bloodiest prison escape of World War II. Alice is living on her father-in-law's farm on the edge of an Australian country town, while her husband is held prisoner in Europe. When Giancarlo, an Italian inmate at the prisoner-of-war camp down the road, is assigned to work on the farm, she hopes that being kind to him will somehow influence her husband's treatment. What she doesn't anticipate is how dramatically Giancarlo will change the way she understands both herself and the wider world. What most challenges Alice and her fellow townspeople is the utter foreignness of the thousand-plus Japanese inmates and their deeply held code of honor, which the camp commanders fatally misread. Mortified by being taken alive in battle and preferring a violent death to the shame of living, the Japanese prisoners plan an outbreak with shattering and far-reaching consequences for all the citizens around them. In a career spanning half a century, Thomas Keneally has proven brilliant at exploring ordinary lives caught up in extraordinary events. With this profoundly gripping and thought-provoking novel, inspired by a notorious incident in New South Wales in 1944, he once again shows why he is celebrated as a writer who "looks into the heart of the human condition with a piercing intelligence that few can match" (Sunday Telegraph).

On the edge of a small Australian town, far from the battlefields of the Second World War, a camp holds thousands of Japanese, Italian and Korean prisoners of war. The locals are unsure how to treat the 'enemy', though Alice Herman, whose young husband is himself a prisoner in Europe, becomes drawn to the Italian soldier sent to work on her father-in-law's farm. The camp commander and his deputy, each concealing a troubled private life, are disunited. And both fatally misread their Japanese captives, who burn with shame at being taken alive. The stage is set for a clash of cultures that has explosive, far-reaching consequences.

Schindlers liste er et bemerkelsesverdig fiksjonsverk basert på den sanne historien om en tysk industrimann og krigsprofitør, Oskar Schindler, som stilt overfor utrydningsleirenes gru satset hele livet og formuen for å redde 1300 jøder fra gasskamrene. Ved hjelp av faktiske vitnesbyrd fra Schindlers jøder, skildrer Thomas Keneally med kløktige virkemidler motet og sluheten til en usannsynlig frelser, en mann som er en skakkjørt blanding av hedonisme og anstendighet, og som i den ubeskrivelige ondskapens nærvær overskrider grensene for egen menneskelighet. "En mesterlig skildring av menneskesjelens vekst.” Los Angeles Times "En enestående beretning … En bemerkelsesverdig prestasjon.” New York Review of Books "Boken om Oskar Schindler tenner et håp i en verden som så lett kan gjøre oss pessimistiske og håpløse. " Jahn Otto Johansen "En forbløffende fortelling … i dette tilfellet er sannheten langt mektigere enn noe fantasien er i stand til å dikte opp.” Newsweek”En hypnotisk roman" Publishers Weekly "Hvordan tyskeren Oskar Schindler endte opp med å redde mer enn tusen polske jøder under Holocaust er en av århundrets mest fascinerende historier. Anbefales varmt." Library Journal DEN KRITIKERROSTE, BESTSELGENDE KLASSIKEREN I NY UTGAVE VINNER AV BOOKERPRISEN OG LOS ANGELES TIMES BOOK AWARD!

In what is perhaps "the best novel of his career" (The Spectator), the acclaimed author of Schindler's List tells the unforgettable story of two sisters whose lives are transformed by the cataclysm of the first world war. In 1915, Naomi and Sally Durance, two spirited Australian sisters, join the war effort as nurses, escaping the confines of their father's farm and carrying a guilty secret with them. Amid the carnage, the sisters' tenuous bond strengthens as they bravely face extreme danger and hostility--sometimes from their own side. There is great humor and compassion, too, and the inspiring example of the incredible women they serve alongside. In France, each meets an exceptional man, the kind for whom she might relinquish her newfound independence--if only they all survive. At once vast in scope and extraordinarily intimate, The Daughters of Mars is a remarkable novel about suffering and transcendence, despair and triumph, and the simple acts of decency that make us human even in a world gone mad.

On the edge of a small town in New South Wales, far from the battlefields of the Second World War, lies a prisoner-of-war camp housing Italian, Korean and Japanese soldiers. For their guards and the locals, many with loved ones away fighting, captive or dead, it is hard to know how to treat them - with disdain, hatred or compassion? Alice, a young woman leading a dull life on her father-in-law's farm, is one of those with a husband held prisoner in Europe. When Giancarlo, an Italian POW and anarchist, is assigned to work on the farm, she hopes that being kind to him will somehow influence her husband's treatment. What she doesn't anticipate is how dramatically Giancarlo will expand her outlook and self-knowledge. But what most challenges Alice and the town is the foreignness of the Japanese inmates and their culture, which the camp commanders fatally misread. Mortified by being taken alive, they plan an outbreak, to shattering and far-reaching effect.In a career spanning half a century, Tom Keneally has proved a master at exploring ordinary lives caught up in extraordinary events. With this gripping and profoundly thought-provoking novel, inspired by a notorious incident in 1944, he once again shows why he is celebrated as a writer who 'looks into the heart of the human condition with a piercing intelligence that few can match' - Sunday Telegraph.

In 1915, two spirited Australian sisters join the war effort as nurses, escaping the confines of their father's dairy farm and carrying a guilty secret with them. Used to tending the sick as they are, nothing could have prepared them for what they confront, first in the Dardanelles, then on the Western Front. Yet they find courage in the face of extreme danger and become the friends they never were before. And eventually they meet the kind of men worth giving up their precious independence for - if only they all survive.At once epic in scope and extraordinarily intimate, The Daughters of Mars brings the First World War to vivid life from an unusual perspective. Profoundly moving, it pays tribute to the men and women who voluntarily risked their lives for peace.

Through the lens of three of the most devastating food crises in modern history- the Górta Mor of British-ruled Ireland, the great famine of British-ruled Bengal in 1943, and the string of famines that plagued Ethiopia during the 1970s and 1980s, Booker Prize-winning author Thomas Keneally vividly evokes the terrible cost of mass starvation at the level of the individual who starves and the nation that watches. Famine is widely misunderstood as a completely natural catastrophe. Keneally recounts that while the triggers- crop, pestilence, and drought- are natural, the political and ideological choices that prolong famine are man-made. Government neglect and individual venality, not food shortages, are historically the causes of sustained, widespread hunger.In Ireland, British authorities ignored the existence of a food crisis while the famished fed on diseased cattle and human remains. In Bengal, where over four million starved to death, Field Marshal Archibald Wavell's reports of people dying in Calcutta's streets and demands for relief resulted in little more than a mocking cable from Winston Churchill asking, why, if food was so scarce, hadn't Gandhi died yet? In Ethiopia, Mengistu Haile Mariam arranged for 400,000 bottles of whisky to ship to Addis Ababa from Britain to celebrate the tenth anniversary of the revolution that put him in power, while one person died every twenty minutes in Korem. These three famines are stark examples of how throughout history, racial preconceptions, administrative neglect, and incompetence have been more lethal than the initiating blights or crop failures. Keneally's startling narrative history is a sobering warning to the authorities in charge of mercy in our time to stop making choices that feed famine instead of the starving.

In this companion volume of Thomas Keneally's widely acclaimed history of the Australian people, the vast range of characters who have formed their national story are brought vividly to life. Immigrants and Aboriginal resistance figures, bushrangers and pastoralists, working men and pioneering women, artists and hard-nosed radicals, politicians and soldiers all populate this richly drawn portrait of a vibrant land on the cusp of nationhood and social maturity.From the 1860s to the great rifts wrought by World War I, an era commenced in which Australians pursued glimmering visions: of equity in a promised land. It was a time of social experiment and reform, of industrial radicalism and women's rights. But as much as larrikin anti-authoritarianism was celebrated, Australians retained a provincialism - there was no Australian revolution.With a rich assortment of contradictory, inspiring and surprising characters, Tom Keneally brings to life the people of a young and cocky nation.

Convicts and Aborigines, settlers and soldiers, patriots and reformers, bushrangers and gold seekers: bestselling author Thomas Keneally has woven their lives and their stories together in a vibrant history which does full justice to the rich and colourful nature of Australia's unique national character.Taking the reader from pre-settlement to European occupation through to the Eureka Stockade of 1854, Keneally tells the story of Australia through its people. Were the first European mothers whores or matriarchs? Was the first generation of Australian children the luckiest or unluckiest on the planet? How did this often cruel and brutal penal experiment lead to a coherent civil society? To answer these and many more questions Keneally has brought to life the high and the low, the convict and the free of early Australian society.

After a long, dangerous escape from Tsarist Russia, Artem Samsurov might have reached sanctuary in Brisbane, Australia, but that doesn't stop him trying to create a socialist paradise with his fellow emigres and workmates. And despite getting entangled with an attractive female lawyer, then charged with the murder of an informer, he never loses hope that one day the revolution will come. But when he returns to Russia in 1917 to fight alongside his comrades, he cannot know whether it will succeed, or at what cost.In this enthralling novel, Thomas Keneally brings to life a seismic episode in world history from an unusual, intimate perspective. Basing his story on a real figure, he captures what it was like moment by dramatic moment for the men and women caught up in the maelstrom, and explores the passions, ideals and terrible compromises that fuelled it.

The result of a collaboration between Sydney’s Macquarie University and International PEN Sydney Centre, and funded by the Australia Council for the Arts and the Australian Research Council, The Literature of Australia gathers the most distinctive and most significant of the nation’s writing. Highlights include: Coverage of over two hundred years of literature in all genres, from the 1700s to the present, and over 500 entries from 307 different authors, including writing by Aboriginal authors from the early colonial period to the present.Work from contemporary authors of international renown, including Shirley Hazzard, Peter Carey, David Malouf, Les Murray, Alexis Wright, and Kate Grenville.Biographical details about the authors of the works selected, an introductory essay, major essays setting the works in their historical context, and suggestions for further reading. The Literature of Australia offers readers of all kinds a window into the myriad ways of being Australian.

The extraordinary tale of Oskar Schindler, the Aryan who saved hundreds of Jews in Nazi-occupied Poland, is now legendary, but as Tom Keneally reveals in this absorbing memoir, luck and the dogged persistence of one of 'Schindler's Jews' were vital in bringing it to the world's attention through his Booker Prize-winning novel, SCHINDLER'S ARK and the subsequent film, SCHINDLER'S LIST.Entertaining, inspiring and filled with anecdotes about the many people involved, from the survivors Keneally interviewed to Steven Spielberg and Liam Neeson, Searching for Schindler gives a revealing insight into a writer's mind and the creation of a modern classic. It also traces what happened in the decades after the war to Schindler, his wife, and the people they rescued - including Leopold Pfefferberg, who made it his mission to repay his priceless debt to Schindler. Above all, it sheds renewed light on a fascinatingly flawed man, and an instance of exceptional humanity amid the greatest inhumanity mankind has known.

A STUNNING NOVEL BASED ON THE TRUE STORY OF HOW GERMAN WAR PROFITEER AND PRISON CAMP DIREKTOR OSKAR SCHINDLER CAME TO SAVE MORE JEWS FROM THE GAS CHAMBERS THAN ANY OTHER, SINGLE PERSON DURING WORLD WAR II. IN THIS MILESTONE OF HOLOCAUST LITERATURE, THOMAS KENEALLY USES THE ACTUAL TESTIMONY OF THE SCHINDLERJUDEN - SCHINDLER S JEWS - TO BRILLIANTLY PORTRAY THE COURAGE AND CUNNING OF A GOOD MAN IN THE MIDST OF UNSPEAKABLE EVIL. ""A MASTERFUL ACCOUNT OF THE GROWTH OF THE HUMAN SOUL.""-LOS ANGELES TIMES BOOK REVIEW ""AN EXTRAORDINARY TALE...NO SUMMARY CAN ADEQUATELY CONVEY THE STRATAGEMS AND REVERSES AND SUDDEN TWISTS OF FORTUNE. A NOTABLE ACHIEVEMENT."" -THE NEW YORK REVIEW OF BOOKS THOMAS KENEALLY, NOVELIST, PLAYWRIGHT, AND PRODUCER, IS THE AUTHOR OF NUMEROUS CRITICALLY ACCLAIMED NOVELS, INCLUDING THE CHANT OF JIMMIE BLACKSMITH, THE PLAYMAKER, A FAMILY MADNESS, AND WOMAN OF THE INNER SEA. १९३९ ते १९४५ एका विकृत राजवटीच्या हट्टापायी सगळं जग वेठीला धरलं गेलं होतं. युरोपची भूमी बेचिराख होत होती.ज्यूंचा वंश नष्ट करायची प्रतिज्ञा नाझी भस्मासुराने केली होती.त्या आगीत सगळ्यात जास्त होरपळून निघालेला देश म्हणजे पोलंड. नाझींनी उघडलेल्या ३२० छळछावण्यांपैकी ३०० पोलंडमध्ये होत्या.त्या सगळ्या देशाचाच तुरुंग झाला होता. या दुस-या महायुद्धाच्या कालखंडात माणसामधल्या सैतानी वृत्तीने कळस गाठला होता. पण त्याच बरोबर खूप ठिकाणी देव, माणसांच्या रूपात संकटात सापडलेल्यांच्या मदतीला धावून जात होता.शिंडलर्स लिस्ट ही अशाच एका देवमाणसाची कथा आहे, ज्यानं स्वत जर्मन असून, स्वत चं सर्वस्व पणाला लावून १२०० ज्यूंचे प्राण वाचवले. लिओपोल्ड पेफरबर्ग हा ऑस्कर शिंडलरने वाचवलेल्या ज्यूंपैकी एक. ही जगावेगळी कथा लोकांसमोर आणण्यासाठी त्यानं अतोनात कष्ट केले. थॉमस केनेलीसारख्या सिद्धहस्त प्रतिभावंताने ही कथा १९८३ साली लिहिली.जगभरात तिला प्रतिष्ठेच्या बुकर पुरस्कारासकट अनेक मानसन्मान लाभले.विस्मृतीच्या पडद्याआड गेलेल्या ऑस्कर शिंडलरचं नाव या कलाकृतीमुळे दुसऱ्या महायुद्धाच्या इतिहासात चिरंतन झालं.

The ideal concise biography of an American icon- now available in paperback for the bicentennial of his birth The self -mad e man from a log cabin, the great orator, the Emancipator, the Savior of the Union, the martyr-Lincoln's story is at the very heart of American history. But who was he, really? In this outstanding biography, award-winning author Thomas Keneally follows Lincoln from his impoverished birth through his education and presidency. From the development of his political philosophy to his troubled family life and his actions during the Civil War, Abraham Lincoln is an incisive study of a turning point in our history and a revealing portrait of a pivotal figure.

'Exceptionally good...a master storyteller' Allan Massie, Scotsman'Both an absorbing wartime thriller and a thoroughly convincing study of grief' Sunday TimesIn 1943, when Grace and Leo Waterhouse married in Australia, they were part of a young generation ready to sacrifice themselves to win the war, while being confident they would survive.Sixty years on, as Grace recounts what happened to her doomed hero, she can say what she suspected then: that for many men, bravery is its own end. The tale she tells is one of great love, lost innocence, a charismatic but unstable Irish commander, dashing undercover missions against the Japanese in Singapore, and - in her eyes - reckless, foolhardy exploits. As fresh details continue to emerge, Grace is forced to keep revising her picture of what happened to Leo and his fellow commandoes - until she learns about the final piece in the jigsaw, and an ultimate betrayal. As absorbing as it is thought-provoking, this timely novel poses unsettling questions about what drives men to battle and heroic deeds, and movingly conveys the life-long effect on those who survive them.