A city on the river

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A City on the River (originally A River Town ) is a novel by the Australian author Thomas Keneally , published in 1995 .

action

Macleay River, Lower Creek, location of the novel

Shortly before the turn of the 20th century, the body of a young stranger is found in the small town of Kempsey in New South Wales who, according to an autopsy, died from an illegal abortion . For identification , the police have the young woman's head cut off and instruct the clumsy Constable Hanney to transport it in a large mason jar through the valley of the Macleay River by horse. This head should be shown to every resident - only not respectable women who might be put off by the sight.

While many of the residents soon return to their everyday worries after the first tickle of the sensation, only the Irish-born shopkeeper Timothy Shea seems to be interested in the fate of the dead. Shea begins his own research despite the disinterest of those around him. In addition, he tries to leave the social constraints of his original homeland behind and, due to the indirect financial burdens of the Boer War, vacillates between loyalty to the United Kingdom and a desire for Australian independence. In addition, he makes himself suspicious of the spread of the bubonic plague in the eyes of some local residents .

background

The author of Schindler's List also undertook meticulous historical research for this novel in order not only to paint a realistic picture of that era of Australian identity, but also to show the question of the responsibility of a society that preoccupies him. The book was advertised in German-speaking countries with the label Author von Schindler's List on the book cover . Kempsey is also the birthplace of Keneally.

expenditure

  • Thomas Keneally: A city on the river . Translated by Sylveline Schönwald Berlin Verlag, Berlin (1st edition 1995), 2nd edition 1998, 444 pages, ISBN 978-3827000903

Reviews

  • Bruno von Lutz: "Australian nightmares", Thomas Keneally: A city on the river , in: Neue Zürcher Zeitung , July 18, 1996.
  • In 'Schindler's' Shadow; Thomas Keneally, Drawn to the Morals of His Stories , in: The Washington Post , May 30, 1995
  • "Most critics saw the novel as a detailed metaphor on the Australian Independence to -. Most critics see this novel as independence of extended metaphor on the subject of Australia's."
  • David Willis McCullough: A Hard Life in Haunted Spaces ; in New York Times , May 14, 1995th

Web links

supporting documents

  1. ↑ Obviously an accepted practice at the time: http://australianbookreviewblog.blogspot.com/2007/04/yarra-murder-mystery-repeats-itself.html ( Memento from August 30, 2007 in the Internet Archive )
  2. ↑ samson-uebersetzungen.de - pseudonym for Carmen von Samson; today Carmen von Schöning
  3. ↑ http://www.enotes.com/contemporary-literary-criticism/keneally-thomas-vol-117
  4. ↑ www.nytimes.com