A Commonwealth of Thieves, Thomas Keneally
A Commonwealth of Thieves, Thomas Keneally
5 Rating(s)
List: $20.99 | Sale: $14.70
Club: $10.49

A Commonwealth of Thieves
The Improbable Birth of Australia

Author: Thomas Keneally

Narrator: Simon Vance

Unabridged: 12 hr 27 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Tantor Media

Published: 11/01/2006


Synopsis

It was 1786 when Arthur Phillip, an ambitious captain in the Royal Navy, was assigned the formidable task of organizing an expedition to Australia in order to establish a penal colony. The squalid and turbulent prisons of London were overflowing, and crime was on the rise. Even the hulks sifting at anchor in the Thames were packed with malcontent criminals and petty thieves. So the English government decided to undertake the unprecedented move of shipping off its convicts to a largely unexplored landmass at the other end of the world.

Using the personal journals and documents that were kept during this expedition, historian/novelist Thomas Keneally re-creates the grueling overseas voyage, a hellish, suffocating journey that claimed the lives of many convicts. Miraculously, the fleet reached the shores of what was then called New South Wales in 1788, and after much trial and error, the crew managed to set up a rudimentary yet vibrant settlement. As governor of the colony, Phillip took on the challenges of dealing with unruly convicts, disgruntled officers, a bewildered, sometimes hostile native population, as well as such serious matters as food shortages and disease. Moving beyond Phillip, Keneally offers captivating portrayals of Aborigines, who both aided and opposed Phillip, and of the settlers, including convicts who were determined to overcome their pasts and begin anew.

With the authority of a renowned historian and the narrative grace of a brilliant novelist, Thomas Keneally offers an insider's perspective into the dramatic saga of the birth of a vibrant society in an unfamiliar land. A Commonwealth of Thieves immerses us in the fledgling penal colony and conjures up colorful scenes of the joy and heartbreak, the thrills and hardships that characterized those first four improbable years. The result is a lively and engrossing work of history, as well as a tale of redemption for the thousands of convicts who started new lives thousands of miles from their homes.
.


About Thomas Keneally

Thomas Keneally has won international acclaim for his novels Schindler's List (the basis for the movie of the same name and the winner of the Booker Prize), The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith, Confederates, Gossip from the Forest, The Playmaker, Woman of the Inner Sea, A River Town, Office of Innocence, and The Tyrant's Novel. His most recent works of nonfiction are The Great Shame and American Scoundrel. Thomas lives in Sydney, Australia.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Nick on July 05, 2015

I found this book to be something of a disappointment. No because of anything this book is, but because of what I thought it was going to be. This might (probably is) be a bit unfair, but it did colour my final impressions of the book so it's worth discussing what exactly this book is. This book is a......more

Goodreads review by Colette on October 28, 2008

This was a great read--so well-researched that Kenneally isable to skillfully characterize the diarists he used, and this brought the history to life. I loved the way he switched perspectives from the Europeans to the Eora/Aboriginal peoples. I felt he represented the latter's view intelligently and......more

Goodreads review by Brian on October 27, 2020

This is a highly personal, intimate kind of history book, concerned very heavily with the stories of many real individuals. These people's crimes, sufferings, hopes, tragedies and victories are given with honest sympathy and impressive detail. There is equal regard for the female and male prisoners,......more

Goodreads review by Bruce on April 15, 2008

This book, albeit somewhat awkwardly written (see examples below), is a chronicle of the first four years of Georgian Britain's Australian settlement -- the establishment of convicts at Sydney Cove. (Thanks, Lord Sydney!) The selection of period comes across as a bit arbitrary. It covers the term of......more

Goodreads review by J.S. on August 14, 2017

Keneally's command of the subject matter, steady humor, and masterful text combine to make what could be dry a wondrous reading experience. All is tied in with global events, yet quotidian details of life in the new colony of convicts is attended well. For those who haven't read before about Austral......more