The earliest days of Sydney, Australia, and the prison colony which was its first population center provide a dynamic setting for this ambitious, old-fashioned novel. With a broad scope, grand design, and sensitive treatment of universal themes, it has the weightiness of an epic, but is far more vigorous and more involving than that, with vivid, sympathetic characters who come fully to life. Transported halfway around the world to a forbidding and alien landscape, men and women prisoners share their personal struggles, providing a vitality and emotional punch one does not often find in fiction. The reader soon discovers that the prisoners are not all that different, of course, from the civil servants and Marines who administer the colony--everyone in Port Jackson (Sydney) is a prisoner in some way or another, be it physical, spiritual, or emotional.

Lt. Ralph Clark's decision to produce George Farquhar's early 18th century comedy, The Recruiting Officer, with an all-prisoner cast leads to many emotional conflicts. Though the play provides the participants with a way to achieve a measure of dignity, they must still bow to the strictures of the colony off stage. Many prisoners wield cruel powers over other prisoners, while Marines and administrators exert power over both the prisoners and the aborigine inhabitants of the area. The restrictions imposed by the church, in the person of Rev. Dick Johnson, aggravate tensions by concentrating on rules of behavior rather than on the human soul. Against this backdrop of the restrictions on their lives, Keneally's characters are set in high relief, their humanity contrasting sharply with the impersonal forms of government which are imposed upon them.

Meticulously depicting 18th century England, its government, its penal system, and its social structure, along with early Australia, its first western inhabitants, the decimation of the aborigine population, and the social conflicts faced by its characters, this is one of Keneally's greatest novels, a timeless story based on real journals, stunning in its effect.

This finely crafted work is one of Keneally's most notable. Portraying a man in an agony of moral conflict over his love for a woman convict yet constantly aware of the family left behind in England, The Playmaker addresses human feelings at many levels. Like so many of his books, Keneally has taken figures from history, weaving a plausible tale of the life they might have led. His examination of the mind and heart of Lieutenant Ralph Clark, during the early years of the Port Jackson [Sydney] prison colony, a is deeply moving account. Far from home, these exiled people face disturbing choices. Keneally compares the founders of the Sydney colony with space travellers, isolated in a dangerous situation with limited resources.

Clark's task is the staging of a play in celebration of the king's birthday. Assembling a cast from the convicts, he's confronted with a range of personalities from house maids to forgers. Keneally's research has dredged up backgrounds of these transported felons; the thieves' guild oath is a particularly fine touch. His real talent, however, is in presenting this material through his characters . Each of his figures projects a reality surpassing other writers of historical fiction. While his descriptive narrative may make modern allusions, none of his persona are dragged out of their original time frame. Ralph Clark is particularly well drawn. Keneally has a special talent for presenting us with an 18th Century man's feelings and aspirations as much as it's possible for us to know them.

That this book has been returned to the active sales list is a testament to its value. It should be read by more people. The 18th Century setting is less important than what Keneally has to say about people. Add this book to your shelves with confidence. It's worth more than a single read.

I read this book seveal years ago, before Keneally's name became so widely known as a result of the success of Schindler's List (the movie). This book stands out in my memory for the great ability to transport us to a different time, place and way of thinking. I found it to have been very skillfully written. I subsequently read other books of his as a result of the pleasure derived from this one and was not disappointed.This book deserves to be more widely known.

This book has impressed me. I've loved it and it was very hard to put it down. i love the way Keneally writes and I found that it was a great plot. I've rated it 5 stars because it deserves it. Only one thing that has to be pointed out that some dialogues in aboriginal english were hard to understand.

READ IT!

Keneally's fictionalised account of the life of Aborigine Jimmy Blacksmith is a multi-layered masterpiece. His prose is fluid and deceptively simple as ever, but the subject is dark and dangerous. Probing the basic essence of racial identity, Kenneally reveals disturbing truths not confined to time or place. There are no heroes or villains in this sad story of loss and learning, but a sense of entrapment by race, history and circumstances. The narrative flows along at a breathtaking pace, and many readers will enjoy this book for its intriguing portrayal of pioneer Australia and the tragedy of a good man turned murderer.

Anyone who has ever enjoyed a novel by Thomas Keneally and wondered about his "inner man" will be richly rewarded by this perceptive, unpretentious, and often light-hearted memoir of life during his 17th year. The year 1952, was, he says, a "reckless, sweet, divinely hectic and subtly hormonal year...the most succulent and the most dangerous [year]," one which "lightly embarked on, [has] not to this day ceased to tease, govern and turn on me."

Capturing the confusion of adolescence, along with the trying on of roles, the dreams of the future, and his own willing surrender to aesthetic and otherworldly influences, he introduces the reader to his family, his school, his neighborhood, his church, and his psyche, as he "hungers for grandeur" and makes decisions which will ultimately affect the course of his life. Vividly depicting his friends, the Celestials, with whom he shares his last year at St. Pat's, a boys' day school about 15 miles outside of Sydney, he reveals himself, at seventeen, as an adequate athlete, an excellent writer, a devoted friend (especially to a blind student, the first ever to sit for the Leaving Certificate from a regular school), a dreamer of literary glory, a devout communicant, and a naïve worshipper-from-afar of the equally naïve Bernadette Curran.

With his characteristically astute eye for imagery and an acute sensitivity (born, in this case, of hindsight) to the pressures pushing him to become a priest, Keneally reconstructs this tumultuous year and the decisions he and his friends ultimately make about their futures. As the reader empathizes with the seventeen-year-old Keneally and appreciates both the atmosphere of Homebush in 1952 and the power of outside forces to affect his life, s/he also appreciates more fully the nature of the true creative urge and the urgency of its release. Less then ten years later, when Keneally's voice finally (and brilliantly) bursts forth, literary history begins a glorious new chapter. Though out-of-print, this book is readily available on Used sites, and Keneally lovers will find it unforgettable.

One would hope a book written about race relations thirty years ago would be irrelevant and possibly dated today. Unfortunately, Keneally's stunning indictment of turn-of-the-century racism, in this case that of Anglo settlers towards Australia's native aborigines, remains vibrant and powerful, even after these many years. Literally timeless in its message and articulate and graceful in its execution, The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith could have been written about many minorities subjugated during many periods in many different countries.

The basic story is not unique. Half aborigine and half Anglo, Jimmie Blacksmith grows up in aborigine culture. Because he is light-skinned, however, he is able to obtain jobs on white landholdings more readily than other aborigines, and there he is exposed to Anglo culture--with all its stated, good intentions, but its sometimes patronizing attitudes and selfish goals. After being worked hard and cheated from his earnings repeatedly, Jimmie snaps, visiting on his former employers the kind of fatal "justice" which has so often been dealt to the aborigines. As vigilantes and police join forces to apprehend Jimmie, we see all the conflicting attitudes toward life and justice which undermine the creation of a unified, fair society.

The throbbing drumbeat of Jimmie's chants and Keneally's insistent narrative pace combine with our revulsion toward Jimmie's actions, to catch us up in the emotions of both the pursuers and the pursued. Our understanding of Jimmie and our empathy with him make us long for his redemption at the same time that we are anxious for justice to take place. Keneally's resolution is brilliant, fittingly combining the best elements of both of Jimmie's worlds. This is a wonderful novel which deals with a complex and sensitive subject without polemics or convenient, easy solutions, and it's as relevant today as it was when it was written.

This book tackles the tricky area of inter-racial violence bravely and with great skill. It paints a shocking picture of the Australia of 100 years ago, and particularly the plight of the aboriginal community. Keneally's economical style is perfectly suited to this dense narative; he makes every word count. One of the best books I've read this year.

good book. buy it. good movie, too

Four years of the most terrible conflict in history came to an end in an isolated railway car. In a time when propaganda had learned to cudgel reason and "weapons of mass destruction" were first truly introduced, weakened French and British armies were told they were victorious. In truth, it was a sea blockade with it's attendant hunger and fatigue that had ended the battles. No matter, propaganda had done its job well. The Western Allies had convinced themselves that Germans were evil incarnate for starting the war and that the time for vengeance had come.

Even before the rise of Hitler, the Germans felt they'd somehow been betrayed. Unable to face a victorious enemy they considered inferior, German aristocrats delved into their Civil Service to find four men to face the wrathful victors to bring about a peace. Thomas Keneally has searched into the histories of these four, so poorly equipped to face such immense anger, resurrecting them to become the central figures in a drama of foregone conclusions.

Thomas Keneally has an unmatched talent for bringing the "small people" into literary prominence. Given the list of his works, you'll seek in vain for depictions of the like of Henry VIII, Elizabeth Tudor or the Sun King. Keneally won't waste his talent or your time on such artificial entities as hereditary monarchs or esteemed statesmen. Yet all of his characters, particularly in this book, are placed in positions of world-shaking importance. Mighty events hinge on the actions of these otherwise "common characters". More, he draws them with a vividness any medieval bard would envy. He has no axes to grind, but shows us how important it is for us to understand that history doesn't move at the whim of those who consider themselves important. "For want of a nail . . . " is the key concept behind nearly all of his writing.

If ever there was a man to envy, it's Tom Keneally. He has an ability to get inside the minds of his characters, presenting them to us with unchallenged validity that most writers cannot equal. But if you're not a writer trying to emulate this talent, you may pick up this book fully confident that you have encountered a writer of special strengths. There is no aspect of this book that warrants criticism, with but one possible exception. When this book was recommended to a friend, she came back with the complaint that "it isn't fair to write about real people. How would you feel if one of these people was your uncle?" Keneally's very next book, A RIVER TOWN, was based on the life of his own grandfather. Would you have the courage?

As a historical based novel, this is great story telling. Keneally's writing style is taut, which helps this book maintain a consistent tension from page 1 till the end. I found it easy to paint pictures in my head of the various scenes he set with his words: the cold, the damp, the dark, the despair, the futility, and especially the feeling of limbo as they crossed no man's land between the lines. This is a much better book than Schindler's Ark - if you liked that you'll love Gossip...

Although it didn't make the list published by the Modern Library, Donald Kaul of Tribune Media Services felt it should be there. Keneally is a great Australian author.

Thomas Keneally's The Great Shame (and the Triumph of the Irish in the English Speaking World) is more specific in topic than the title implies. It is the essentially the story of two groups of transported (to Australia) political prisoners in the nineteenth centures, the Young Irelanders in 1848 and the Fenians in 1865. This long book is vividly written to bring to life the careers of these men whose exploits touched the nations of Ireland, England and America, as well as the budding nation states of Canada and Australia. The only flaw of the book is that it could have done with some shortening of sections, such as the Civil War exploits of Thomas Francis Meagher and the escape of the Fenain soldiers from Australia. At any rate, the author takes the reader on an expansive adventurous journey through a people's struggle and their tragic century of protest. It is fascinating to watch each of the men (and one notable woman, Eva of the Nation) adapt to whichever country they adopt and fight and, sometimes, die for their new nation, Irish rebellion transformed into a universal form of idealism and heroism. A truly monumental work.

The story of what happened to the Irish political prisoners known as the Young Irelanders and the Fenians, in the 1850s and 60s, is expertly told by Australian writer Thomas Keneally in "The Great Shame." Sticking firmly to documented history, about the only thing Keneally leaves out is the nastier side of Fenianism, with its secret vendettas and occasional underlying brutality. But that all lies in the misty past, and Keneally has done a first-rate job of bringing much of this truculent history out into the light.

This is an epic journey, just as the formation of the Irish diaspora needs it to be. You never quite know where you are you going to go next, as ships sail back and forth from Ireland to Australia and from Australia to the Americas. It is the roaring days of sail just before steam, and gold is being discovered right and left on both sides of the Pacific, sufficient to lend impetus to various Fenian schemes through goldfields' fundraising.

One of the characters involved in the 50s was a man destined to become an American Civil War hero with the rank of general. He fought on the Union side while another Irishman who had fought the same battle as he had at home in Ireland, and had also been transported for it, fought with the Confederates. Such were the fortunes of war at that time.

The book also recounts how the Fenian forces tried on three occasions, prior to Confederation, to invade Canada in order to hurt the British in North America. They also had the long-term plan of mounting an invasion of Ireland from a Canadian base. It was all a bit pathetic in the end, but for a time, it was in deadly earnest and who could have said what the result might not have been had the Fenian forces succeeded.

Perhaps the most interesting part of a very entertaining book is the retelling of an attempted rescue from Western Australia of the last group of Fenian "lifers," all soldiers who had been cashiered from the British Army for their part in Fenian plots in England and Ireland. These men had little hope of ever leaving their prison, and were mostly ailing by the time American Fenians had raised the enormous sum needed to buy a ship to go to their rescue. The hair-raising tale of what happened is one of the nineteenth century's best adventure stories, and Keneally relishes the telling of it.

So this is a book which has everything an Irishman, or an Irishman at heart, could wish for. I wonder what the reaction of the English might be to such a tale. The evidence is somewhat damning, to the effect that political repression of the most odious kind was used during and after the famine. Of course, this is only referring to the nineteenth century and does not go back in any detail to the awful story of Cromwell's men or even earlier, which might lead one to think that the English, when they came to Ireland, only did so to practice.

If you've got any Irish blood in you, (and if you didn't previously know one way or the other, this may prove to be a glorious occasion for finding out) you'll fairly quickly be learning to say the old war cry, Erin go bragh. Ireland forever! It's a strange tale and one that should make us reflect about the nature of power and its misuse. It all seems so long ago now but that's just a mirage of sorts, for it was really only just the other day.

Lastly I should point out that writing a book like this must have been a sheer delight. Keneally seems to have visited many of the sites he talks about and they are often in out of the way places. I imagine that it was an absolute pleasure for him to write a book like this and I look forward to the day when he finds time to do it again. I can't recommend "The Great Shame" highly enough.

Thomas Keneally looks into his own family history, and ends up setting forth the fascinating story of Young Ireland, one of the most neglected periods of Irish history. With his great eye for detail and beautiful imagery, Keneally relates the story of such Irish legends as William Smith O'Brien, Thomas Meagher and John Mitchel. "The Great Shame" brings the lives of these and the other Irish legends of the time to vivid life, following them from their roots in Ireland, to their exile in Van Diemen's Land, and culminating in their glorious rebirth in Civil War America. Read this book!

This is the story about Oscar Schindler, a German, who had a factory with Jewish slave workers in Poland during the 2nd World War. Schindler is corrupt, a heavy drinker and loves women. A powerful and provoking book about Holocaust and the Nazism. But Schindler wasn't a Nazi, and most of the Jews, that worked for him, survived Hitler. Over 6 million Jews were killed, mostly in concentration camps, and Schindler stands as a symbol to those who survived because of him. He managed to do justice when no one else seemed to care.

This story was set in the early 1900's in Germany when Hitler was still in power and killing off the Jews.

The genre of this book I think is historical non-fiction.

The author of this book did a good job with dramatic scenes in this book and also the details and such in this book.

Schindler's list does a very good job at the descriptions in the book and they did a good job with the problem. The problem was that Schindler was trying to protect his men from Hitler because they were Jewish.

I would suggest this book to a audience who like historical novels and people who really love exciting interesting books.

This book reminds me of a lot of other books in the over all picture about discrimination and the fight to survive. The book it reminds of the most and that I would recommend if you liked this book is a One Day in the Life of Ivan Densavich.

The author in this book used a lot of metaphors and language and synonyms that I really didn't understand, but form what I understood I liked.

This book was very tough to read and I recommend reading it over a long period of time and in short intervals each time you read.

Schindler's List brought me to the edge of my seat every time I picked it up and it was hard for me to put it down when I started. The only reason that I would is because of lack of understanding but don't let that scare you from reading this book because it is a compelling and great story.

The Holocaust is a difficult topic to deal with as subject matter for a work of art; its horrors have been explicitly brought to light countless times in several different formats and knowledge of these horrors has pervaded our society such that nearly everyone has been exposed to them in some way or another. In order to tell an effective story about the Holocaust, one must do more than shock the reader with the evils that took place in concentration camps or Jewish ghettos--this has been done once and for all by those who lived through it. In Schindler's List, Thomas Keneally goes beyond such shock value by telling of the profound goodness that emerged--from such unspeakable evil--in the character of prison camp Direktor Oskar Schindler and his Schindlerjuden.

In his telling of the story, Keneally's sure-handed prose adds credibility and its occasional delve into the poetic adds great emotional weight. The effect of such a telling is that of a slow toxin that siezes the reader by the heart and squeezes to the point of anguish, leading to a novel that is both deeply moving and absolutely believable.

As for the story itself, Keneally focuses mostly on the the background, creeping around the edges. Whenactions and ambitions of Schindler, leaving the horror stories recessed in such evils are brought to the forefront of the tale, they are potent and real, but somehow serve more as chiaroscuro to the divine goodness of Schindler's deeds. Thus it is that much more effective when Schindler spends every bit of his entire life's fortune to literally buy life for as many of the Jews as he possibly can. When all is said and done, Keneally has done no less than consecrate the sanctity of life by weighing its importance against that of essentially meaningless things such as money.

By telling the story of a good man living in such evil times, Schindler's List has become an important addition to Holocaust literature.

Keneally's account of the hundred of Jews saved by Oskar Schindler during WWII is more dramatic for what happens than for the way it is presented. Written more like an historical account than a docu-drama, this book is a seamless narrative spun from the individual accounts and recollections of the survivors themselves. It was evidently not written to be a tear-jerker, though I found myself moved throughout by the unembellished story. And just as compelling as the heart-rending tales of those Schindler helped is the tale of Schindler himself. I still don't know what moved him to do what he did, but it is clear that near the end he felt he was fighting as much for his own survival as for that of those he sheltered. He developed a sense of true solidarity with the Jews.

I read started the book before seeing the movie, then picked it up again and finished it a year later. In terms of style, the interpretations are like night and day. For those who have seen neither, I recommend the book first.

CAN SOMEONE PLEASE TELL ME WHY THIS IS NOT AVAILABLE ON DVD?

Schindler's List is my favorite historical drama of all-time for a number of reasons. Not only is it a masterpiece from a cinematic point of view, but it is priceless for the story it tells to the world.

First of all, the acting is superb. Liam Neeson does well as Oskar Schindler, but in particular I liked Ben Kingsley (as Istak Stern, Schindler's accountant) and Ralph Fiennes (as Amon Goeth, the camp commandant). All of the performances were very convincing and reflect the good casting.

Another great feature of this film is the soundtrack. Slow, soaring music tells of the painful circumstances of the Jews and of their conflict with the Nazi regime. Mixed in with the instrumental pieces are Jewish melodies which also gave me a sense of the cultural traditions of the Jewish people.

From a technical point of view, the decision by director Spielberg to shoot the movie is black-and-white was a good one. In fact, I think it makes the movie better than it would have been in color. The few color segments throughout the movie are aptly placed and help to focus the viewer's attention on particular details through the eyes of Schindler. The scenery and photography were excellent compared to other movies I have seen and contribute to the whole atmosphere of the 1940s. Some people may be put off a bit by the length (over 3 hours) but believe me, every minute is worthwhile. Unlike other long movies, there are no lulls or useless scenes -- everything counts.

The best part of the movie without any doubt is the story itself, the tale of Oskar Schindler and how he was able to save 1100 Jews from the Auschwitz gas chambers by employing them in his enamelware factory and eventually his shelling factory. Schindler's ambition and personal success shines through amidst the Jewish tragedy and shows how one man, if he has the willpower, can accomplish what appears to be impossible. Based on the novel by Thomas Keneally (which I have not yet had the opportunity to read), this movie digs deep into the human soul and shows how different people are able to survive.

There are many touching moments in this film; in particular, near the end when the war has been declared over and the Nazis must flee from the Soviet army. This part and the modern-day segment that follows are both truly heart-warming tributes. I finished watching this movie for about the fourth time yesterday, and even though I didn't cry, tears welled up in my eyes (and this rarely happens when I watch movies).

This movie is a must-see not only for its excellence in the film genre but for the story it presents to the viewer. Although it is not suitable for young children (due to its violence and mature content), any mature individual should see it so they can understand that a spark of good can still exist in a fire of evil. This movie deserved all of the Academy Awards that it received and will likely remain in top ten lists for at least the next fifty years. Highly recommended.

Any way you stack it, Steven Spielberg's 1993 masterpiece SCHINDLER'S LIST is one of the most important and enlightening films ever made. It is a heartfelt, deeply personal film about one of the ghastliest events in human history--the Holocaust--and how one man, a Nazi profiteer by the name of Oskar Schindler, while motivated by money, managed to save some 1200 Jews from the gas chambers of Auschwitz during World War II.

Spielberg wisely does not gloss over the fact that Schindler was every bit the womanizer as he was an astute, cagey businessman who made deals with the Nazis to set up an enamelware factory in the Cracow ghetto and employ the Jewish populace there. But his very trusted secretary Itzhak Stern (Ben Kingsley) manages to awaken a latent spark of humanity in the once cold-blooded Schindler. By the time the war is over and the facts are known about the Nazi atrocities, Schindler is financially broke but spiritually enriched. "He who saves one life saves the world entire."

Filmed in somber, documentary-like black-and-white by Janusz Kaminski, SCHINDLER'S LIST features superb performances by Neeson and Kingsley, as well as British actor Ralph Fiennes as the extraordinarily chilling Nazi commandant Amon Goeth, whose basic senses of Nazi business Schindler must appeal to while keeping the fact that he is sheltering the Jews a secret. Spielberg spares nothing in showing us the horrors of the Nazis barbarism; and although it is, not surprisingly, a very lengthy film (three hours and ten minutes), a lot happens for us to absorb, so it never becomes ponderous or heavy-handed.

Winner of seven Oscars, including a Best Director nod to Spielberg that was long overdue, SCHINDLER'S LIST shows us the worst in humanity, but also the best as well. Even in so much pain and death, there is hope. And that is why this film is such a masterpiece.

How does Keneally know? The exploration of what it took for people to survive in the no-mans-land of eastern Europe as fascist and communist fought for control is so revealing that I could only believe that K had spent hours interviewing people who were there. Yet in his other novels he shows that he has an uncanny ability to understand what 'just folks' went through in far away times and places. Keneally is so sensitive and sympathetic that he can make characters real in a very deep way. The story of the struggle for survival in Europe is played against the banality of suburban life in Australia. When people are caught up in cataclysmic events, they live by their wits or perish. When the upheaval subsides, can they return to 'normalcy'?

Keneally explores, in this fascinating novel, the effects of history, specifically the violent history of Belorussia during World War II, on our ahistorical present, specifically suburban Sydney. As in his far more famous Schindler's List, no one is completely good or evil; there are admirable Nazis and detestable police men. Excellent.

The Second World War in Europe was considered a Great Crusade. The crusaders were largely single-minded in their approach to the conflict, particularly in political matters. The invasion of the Soviet Union by Nazi Germany brought that Communist coalition into a rickety accord with the Western Allies. Loosely calling the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics "Russia", the Allies lumped many peoples together. The member-states of the Soviet Union each had a sense of their own nationalism. In some cases, these client states gave uneasy welcome to the invaders in the belief they would thereby shed the Russian yoke.

Thomas Keneally has added to our awareness of these conditions with A FAMILY MADNESS. Many survivors of Nazi Germany fled Europe at war's end. So much attention has been given to those who found sanctuary in South America, that we tend to forget there were other places to hide from justice. Australia was a fine refuge for many European exiles in the post-war years. But those émigrés often carried a heavy mental and emotional burden.

Rudi Kabbel, Sydney security firm owner, is one such, his father having been a police chief in Nazi- occupied Belorussia. The weight of being the son of a man who assisted with the settlement of "the Jewish problem" in his nation rests severely on him. Belorussia, the Ukraine and other Soviet Union members took the view that Jews were the foundation of the Bolshevik movement. Russia, as the driving force in expanding Communism and degrading national aspirations. These nations had engaged in pogroms against the Jews at earlier times in their history. It was no novelty to continue it under the Nazis as an element in their resistance to Russian hegemony. So Stanislaw Kabbelski willingly became an instrument against the hated enemy of Russian Communist Jewry.

Keneally's method of tracing this complex time is by the creation of a Kabbelski family history and a diary of the elder Kabbelski. The family now lives in Sydney, running the security agency. Terry Delaney, becomes involved with the Kabbels as an employee of the agency. He complicates his association by having an affair with Rudi's daughter Danielle. As their situation evolves, Delaney becomes increasingly aware of Rudi's disturbed mental state. War criminal fugitives and their families are falling under increasing scrutiny. Rudi understands that "history makes its claim - history comes up and grabs people". Now it is reaching up to seize him and his family. And Terry Delaney is being swept up in its grip.

With the blood of Irish rebels in his veins and as an ardent leader in the Australian Republican Movement, Thomas Keneally is well versed it nationalist ideals. He's expressed his ideals in fiction and autobiography. He knows how it can be expressed and what pitfalls may be encountered. He doesn't have to be Belorussian to understand the workings of the Kabbelski mind. Nor does he fall into the trap of his strong nationalist sense overlooking brutality done in its name. Keneally's sense of humanity is only excelled by his ability to relate a story with consummate skill.

Keneally's greatest talent lies in how his words can convey the thoughts of others. Here, he's given us a view of some of the hidden events of World War II. We must be grateful to him for that effort. In today's environment of numerous bushfire wars and "incidents" in the name of nationalist aspirations, this book reminds us not to be caught by accepting simple answers to complex issues. Dig deeper, he cautions. Accept no superficial evidence for there is certain to be further evidence buried away - either by design or oversight. This book carries valuable reminders for us all.