better than the secret river. was surprised that i got into this. good characters. ( )

better than the secret river. was surprised that i got into this. good characters. ( )

Sarah Thornhill by Kate Grenville is a direct sequel to her novel Secret River as well as the third book in her Colonial Trilogy. Sarah is the last child born to William Thornhill, her mother is dead and her father has remarried a social climbing woman who overlooks her husbands convict past and his other secrets. Sarah grows up and falls in love with Jack Langland, knowing full well that he is part white, part “darkie”. Jack has always been welcomed in her home and she doesn’t think her father will object to the match. She is even more confident when her father brings his half dark granddaughter into the family.

But the granddaughter is being forced to give up her “native ways”, she is given the name of Rachel and being taught to do things the English way. Then comes a day when instead of accepting her choice, her parents tear them apart. Jack is told of the massacre of aboriginals that William was a large part of and this turns him against the family and he wants nothing to do with Sarah. She eventually marries another man, one who is kind and caring, but still her thoughts are with Jack. On her father’s deathbed, she finally learns of his secret and she has a very hard time coming to terms with it. Eventually Jack comes back into her life with a request that she come to New Zealand to allow her native family come to terms with the death of William’s half native granddaughter. Will this step allow Sarah to find closure and allow her to move on or will this end in her being alone.

Sarah Thornhill, as in all of the books in this trilogy, explores the difficult relationship between the white settlers and the native population. I found this beautifully written story to be a very moving portrait of a young woman of colonial Australia. Never knowing of the atrocities committed by her father, she didn’t realize that bringing his half-breed granddaughter into the family had more to do with atonement than in actually caring for the girl. The author loosely based some of the facts of this story on her own family’s history, and one can see how certain events and choices made in the past will resonate in the future. ( )

good to revisit the sometimes troubled Thornhill family in this sequel. Sarah is a strong and determined character - this is all about her point of view; her doomed relationship with Jack and her discovery of the father's sins. ( )

By the same author as "The Secret River" which is a book I have previously read and reviewed. I enjoyed this book more than the previous one. The plot was interesting, although the writing is difficult to read as the author has chosen not to use inverted commas which always slows a book down in my opinion. ( )