English Passengers, Matthew Kneale
English Passengers, Matthew Kneale
2 Rating(s)
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English Passengers

Author: Matthew Kneale

Narrator: Davina Porter, Patrick Tull, Ron Keith, Gerard Doyle, Simon Prebble, Jenny Sterlin, Gianfranco Negroponte

Unabridged: 20 hr 28 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Recorded Books

Published: 04/15/2009


Synopsis

English Passengers presents the diverse and often conflicting perspectives of a remarkable cast of characters—including British convicts, government officials, missionaries who impose their European standards and self-serving rules on the native population, aboriginal Tasmanians caught in a desperate struggle for survival, and members of a bizarre expedition searching for the Garden of Eden.

The narrative begins in 1857, as Captain Illiam Quillian Kewley of the Sincerity, thwarted in his plans to smuggle tobacco and brandy into England, is forced to put his boat up for charter. He soon finds himself bound for the Pacific, carrying not only his well-hidden contraband but also the Reverend Geoffrey Wilson, an eccentric vicar out to prove that the Biblical Garden of Edenlies in the heart of Tasmania; Dr. Thomas Potter, an arrogant scientist developing a revolutionary and sinister theory about the races of mankind; and Timothy Renshaw, a diffident young botanist. Each man offers a highly personalized record of the high seas adventures and internecine feuds that mark the voyage.

The situation that awaits them in Tasmania is brought to life in narratives exposing the dark history of British and aboriginal relationships since the 1820s.

Peevay, the son of an Aborigine raped by an escaped convict, describes the subjugation of his people by English invaders who are as lethal in their good intentions as they are in their cruelty. His impressions, ironically confirmed byreports from white officials, schoolteachers, and settlers, chronicle the destruction of a thriving, self-sufficient community in the name of God, science, and "civilization."

Based on historical facts, English Passengers is an epic tale, packed with swashbuckling adventure, humor, and memorable characters. Matthew Kneale renders the prejudices and follies of the Imperialist Age with dead-on accuracy and captures—through the voice and destiny of Peevay and his tribesmen—the irreversible tragedies it wrought.

About Matthew Kneale

Matthew Kneale was born in London in 1960, the son and grandson of writers. He studied modern history at Magdalen College, Oxford. He has written five novels, including English Passengers, which was shortlisted for the Booker Prize and won the Whitbread Book of the Year Award, and two nonfiction books. For the last fifteen years he has lived in Rome with his wife and two children. Visit him at MatthewKneale.net.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Vit on October 11, 2024

The narration of English Passengers is situated on two different planes… The first is the high farce of the seafaring expedition in search of Eden: Out through the door I went and behind me I heard what wasn’t any kind of word at all, but a kind of well-spoken howl. Well, given the right day I can be......more

Goodreads review by Helle on September 28, 2016

An immensely satisfying read and a literary adventure! That’s what this book was. It began with the first line: Say a man catches a bullet through his skull in somebody’s war, so where’s the beginning of that? How can you not be pulled into a story that begins thus? On top of that, the man behind thi......more

Goodreads review by Metodi on October 10, 2024

Книга за един малко познат, но ужасяващ геноцид, това е в същността си "Английските пасажери" от Матю Нийл. Не знаех почти нищо за историята и коренното население на остров Тасмания ("Земя на Ван Димен") преди да я започна и по време на прочита ѝ на няколко пъти я оставях, за да ровя в нета за допълн......more

Goodreads review by Colin on December 19, 2023

4.5 STARS An impressive read that brings together a collection of interconnecting storylines and multiple characters, all speaking to the reader in the first person, the most affecting being a young, insightful Tasmanian Aborigine whose account of HIS place in HIS world is compelling. His own persona......more

Goodreads review by mark on March 24, 2020

Kinda hard to enjoy a "farcical tragicomedy" when it features an actual genocide. Tone deaf much? Not a bad book by any means and the author clearly had good intentions. The sort of good intentions that many bougie white intellectuals have when deconstructing race, personal tragedy, and large-scale a......more