The Lieutenant - (Canons) by Kate Grenville (Paperback)

About the Book

From the author of the Booker-shortlisted The Secret River and winner of the Orange Prize, The Lieutenant is a story of unlikely friendship, a voyage across oceans and a journey towards understanding

Book Synopsis

In 1788 Daniel Rooke sets out on a journey that will change the course of his life. As a lieutenant in the First Fleet, he lands on the wild and unknown shores of New South Wales. There he sets up an observatory to chart the stars. But this country will prove far more revelatory than the skies above.

Based on real events, The Lieutenant tells the unforgettable story of Rooke's connection to an Aboriginal child - a remarkable friendship that resonates across the oceans and the centuries.

Review Quotes

A beautifully uplifting piece of fiction-- "Independent"

A compelling narrative . . . An intelligent, spare, always engrossing imagining of first contact, in which the fictionalisation of history allows a comment about current postcolonial race relationships which escapes the didacticism of special pleading-- "Times Literary Supplement"

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-- "Sunday Telegraph"

A triumph. Read it at once-- "The Times"

An original, inviting tale-- "Daily Telegraph"

Genuinely affecting-- "Financial Times"

Grenville inhabits characters with a rare completeness . . . writes 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--Jay Parini "Guardian"

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"

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-- "Daily Mail"

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

About the Author

Kate Grenville is one of Australia's most celebrated novelists. Her bestselling novel The Secret River received the Commonwealth Writers' Prize, and was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize and the Miles Franklin Literary Award. The Idea of Perfection won the Orange Prize. Grenville's other novels include Sarah Thornhill, Lilian's Story, Dark Places and Joan Makes History.