by Chantal Hachem

Created on: May 16, 2009   Last Updated: May 19, 2009

Escaping to a foreign land for sightseeing and adventure may be great in theory but it depends where you're going and in what century. The purpose of my joining a Contemporary World Literature Book Club in my native Midwestern town of Chicago was to find a way to have international experiences through the magic of reading about places by authors from all over the world about their native lands.

The Secret River, a novel written by Kate Grenville (published in 2005 by Canongate of NY, originally published in Australia by The Text Publishing Company) is a book I had not heard of nor probably would not have heard of nor have read had it not been for my participation in my book club.

Since my joining the book club or meet-up as it is also known, we had read books from Scotland, India, Denmark, and Bangladesh. This book, The Secret River was written by Australian native Kate Grenville and was about, Australia and also London, England.

Grenville writes in her dedication page:

The novel is dedicated to the Aboriginal people of Australia: past, present and future.

Towards the end of the novel you will see why this is so.

Grenville's style of writing has been compared to that of Charles Dickens style and it is true that while I was reading it I started thinking that the book reminded me of one of Dickens books such as Great Expectations or better yet A Tale of Two Cities.

There are several reasons for this, the first is that the novel is set in late 18th century, circa 1796 and moves forward from there. The second parallel is the novel is set initially in London. And lastly and mainly, the story is brimming full of characters that are a poor miserable wretched lot who feel the pangs of hunger, freeze in the cold, surrounded by those dying of consumption and oppressed by cruel unsympathetic wealthier people in a very hierarchical society.

As in Dickens novels poverty and class distinction is prominent and lays a foundation for Grenville's main character, a one Will Thornhill. Thornhill's lack forms the basis of his thoughts and actions. The consequences of certain actions subsequently land him for a time in prison. In Dickens' Tale of Two Cities there was La Bastille, in The Secret River, the prison that Thornhill must suffer and nearly suffocate in is called Newgate Yard. In this place he along with hundreds of others awaits his sentence of death by hanging for an unsuccessful attempt at petty theft.

The following excerpt from the book is from when his

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