Tom Keneally
Thomas Keneally won the Booker Prize in 1982 with Schindler's Ark, later made into the Academy Award-winning film Schindler's List by Steven Spielberg. His non-fiction, includes the memoir Searching For Schindler and Three Famines, an LA Times Book of the Year, and the histories The Commonwealth Of Thieves, The Great Shame and American Scoundrel. His fiction, includes The Widow And Her Hero (shortlisted for the Prime Minister's Literary Award), An Angel In Australia and Bettany's Book. His novels The Chant of Jimmy Blacksmith, Gossip from the Forest, and Confederates were all shortlisted for the Booker Prize, while Bring Larks and Heroes and Three Cheers For The Paraclete won the Miles Franklin Award. The People's Train was longlisted for the Miles Franklin Award and shortlisted for the Commonwealth Writers Prize, South East Asia division.
News and Blog
I thought it would be a breeze to write about ten of my favourite Australian books for Australia Day, but each time I have thought about bringing my fingers to the keyboard, I change the books I want to include. One solution is to restrict myself to fiction only. Of course this means I won’t be able to mention Recollections of a Bleeding Heart by Don Watson (but this would be perfect to get...
The days are getting shorter and the mornings increasingly crisp which in the Australian publishing world can only mean one thing – the Sydney Writers’ Festival is upon us. Between Monday 16 and Sunday 22 May Sydney will be swarming with writers and festival-goers and this year Artistic Director Chip Rolley is treating us to over 400 events with some amazing writers in locations all...
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Books by Tom Keneally
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The Daughters Of Mars
by Tom KeneallyEscaping the pain and guilt of their mother’s death, and the future they inherited, the Durance sisters leave Australia to nurse on the front during WWI.
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The People's Train
by Tom Keneally'Thomas Keneally is one of the historical novel's most expert practitioners, and his new book sees him back on the form that produced SCHINDLER'S ARK' Giles Foden, Guardian
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Searching For Schindler
by Tom KeneallyA memoir of Tom’s journey around the world to discover the complete story of Oskar Schindler and that list.
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The Widow And Her Hero
by Tom KeneallyTo be a hero's wife in times supposedly suited to the heroic caused a woman to swallow doubt...'
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The Commonwealth Of Thieves
by Tom KeneallyA brilliant recreation of the first four years of white settlement in Australia by acclaimed author Tom Keneally.
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An Angel In Australia
by Tom KeneallyShortlisted for the Miles Franklin Literary Award, a haunting and evocative tale of murder and loss of innocence in wartime Australia.
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American Scoundrel
by Tom KeneallyOn the last, cold Sunday of February 1859, Daniel Sickles shot his wife's lover in Washington's Lafayette Square, just across from the White House ... this is the story of that killing and its repercussions.
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Bettany's Book
by Tom KeneallyNow in paperback, the epic Australian novel that was inspired by a diary Tom Keneally discovered while researching THE GREAT SHAME.
jim mcavoy0 stars
22 October 2011 at 8:01pm
Reportthank you
Ian Muldoon0 stars
2 November 2011 at 10:22am
ReportObituaries have a certain congratulatory predictability and are sometimes revealing. That's what obituaries are I suppose. I'm not alone in my desire to have my ashes thrown in the local creek and for those close to me remaining, or anyone else, to shut up. Then one reads Tom Keneally's piece on Shooty Vikadan (SMH 2Nov11). Words cannot describe how powerfully he gets to the heart of the matter regarding what it means to be us, Australian, and how we are not what we should be. As Shooty might say: "And I thought...." Well written Tom.
Indran Amirthanayagam0 stars
3 November 2011 at 3:57am
ReportMy father Guy Amirthanayagam and Tom Keneally were friends and I knew Tom when I was a teenager in Honolulu in the miid 70s. I want to write to Tom to thank him for his open letter about the suicide of a Tamil in detention in Australia and also send him some of my poems. Would you pass this message to him? My email address is indranmx@gmail.com. My blog on poetry is http://indranamirthanayagam.blogspot.com thanks Indran
Tom Kenneally0 stars
3 November 2011 at 10:18pm
ReportHi, I need to contact Tom ASAP to help me help my sister Carol who has pancreatic cancer which has spread to her liver. FYI Tom, my father Tom; now deceased and myself all signed the vistors book at the Shire of Boulder; no longer a LGA, many years ago. We are related all from county Cork I understand. Regards Tom Kenneally 54 Hutton St Collie WA 6225 Mob 0428939676
Westly Russell0 stars
6 November 2011 at 11:51am
ReportVaunted values too slow to save neglected son from fatal despair Tom Keneally November 2, 2011 Opinion OPINION Candlelight vigil ... at Villawood detention centre in memory of Shooty, a Sri Lankan who took is life in the centre. Candlelight vigil ... at Villawood detention centre in memory of Shooty, a Sri Lankan who took his life in the centre. Photo: Ben Rushton An open letter to 'Shooty', who committed suicide in Villawood detention centre last week. Well said. Westly Russell - Registered Migration Agent Number 0316072 - Author of THE VISA - Published by Otford Press.
Holly Champion0 stars
11 November 2011 at 2:41pm
ReportHello I have just bought the two volumes of "Australians". I would really love it if I could get the books signed by Mr Keneally as Christmas presents for my grandparents who write books about Sydney history. Please could you let me know a relevant forwarding address or a book-signing event per email? Thank you so much. Best Regards, Holly Champion
hick550 stars
30 November 2011 at 11:32am
ReportI've seen and heard mention of a Thomas Keneally book about a World War One nurse or nurses, but can't find it. Has it been published yet? Any info so that i can keep an eye out for it. Ta. Anne
C0 stars
10 December 2011 at 3:32pm
ReportHello, we have just named our second son Thomas, as a nod to Tom Keneally. We would like him to sign our recently purchased copy of Australians Volume 2. He wrote a dedication in our copy of Volume 1 to our first son. Could you advise how we could arrange this please? Many thanks!
Kennedy Emetulu0 stars
28 December 2011 at 3:49am
Report.. (Sir, I'm only contacting you here through this medium, because I couldn't find a private email for you. But it's an issue everyone should be concerned about) Dear Mr Keneally, RE: PROFESSOR CHRIS ABANI I write to you on behalf of myself and other friends who are seriously interested in the matter I now bring before you. We are bringing to your attention our findings and view about the above person who is a member of your writing fraternity and who is presently a Professor of Creative Writing at the University of California, Riverside amongst other things. Please find attached links two articles which give considerable detail about our worries. We know you may not be aware of the issue we have raised in relation to Chris Abani, because he has spent years laundering these lies in public space without obvious challenge. But, as you will see from reading the articles we have forwarded, he was indeed challenged by fellow Nigerian writers who know the truth in 2003; but this was only within the confines of their email group, krazitivity, to which Chris Abani also belonged. Our investigations revealed that this was not pursued further, because most of them thought he would stop the lies thereafter. But he hasn’t. He has continued to use those lies to deceive his students, his readers, his listeners, Fellowship and prize-awarding bodies and indeed any audience his agents, marketers and promoters get him to address. It has to stop now. For us, we are now convinced that Professor Chris Abani will not come out to speak the truth, as far as the voices challenging him remain localised within the Nigerian community at home or in diaspora. Yet, from our own point of view, if he comes clean, we will forgive him and enjoin him to keep to the straight and narrow path of truth about himself and our country, even as he entertains us with his fiction. We will be the ones to go out there and plead with the world to forgive him and hope that thereafter he will do everything to prove that he is a genuine convert to truth. But Mr Abani has been stonewalling, hoping that this would go away, just as his colleagues’ challenge of 2003 fizzled out. Well, he’s wrong. We urge you to consider our position and take appropriate action as befits the reputable person that you are. Surely, you are in a position to rally other colleagues, do your own investigation and, if need be, come out openly to bring pressure on this man to stop the lies and the smears. Chris Abani has the talent to write books and sell them without lying about himself. That is what he should be doing, rather than laugh all the way to the bank, preying on the genuine suffering and martyrdom of others who really suffered under military dictatorship, some paying the ultimate price. Thank you for your time. It is our hope that you as an influential member of the writing fraternity would bring this to Professor Abani’s attention and demand that he responds. We believe that will compel him not to ignore this anymore. This is hoping you will treat this with the urgency required and do the needful. Yours sincerely, Kennedy Emetulu http://www.nigeriavillagesquare.com/kennedy-emetulu/chris-abani-lie-of-the-truth-seller.html http://saharareporters.com/article/chris-abani-lie-truth-seller http://xokigbo.wordpress.com/2011/11/25/the-trials-of-chris-abani-and-the-power-of-empty-words/ ..
Kennedy Emetulu0 stars
28 December 2011 at 3:52am
Report(Below is my article on the Chris Abani issue) …………. Thursday, 15 December 2011 Chris Abani: Lie$ of the Truth-Seller “If you do not tell the truth about yourself you cannot tell it about other people.” - Virginia Wolf Okay, I envy literary writers. I envy them because there is no vocation with a wider licence to lie than that enterprise. Creative writers are the only ones allowed to take us on a ride, stretch our imagination mercilessly from Alberta to Jakarta and back again, suspending us in tiny twines of woven words of secret magic as their anthills turn mountains, their dust gold and their little droplets of ink drown us in pleasure as we lap it all up in thankful complicity! Yes, yes, it comes with the job description. However, our complicity isn’t won without a cost. Their licence to lie to us comes with caveats upfront, writ-large in blurbs, bio-data and in promotional materials for their work. Their lies must not seep out of their work and begin to coagulate in their heads as some truth, rather than as staple of their art. This trust between writer and reader is established in such bold relief that it is indeed a most sacred covenant. So, our enjoyment of a writer’s work or our emotional and material investment in it is solely premised on their literary invention, not on their invention of facts. Characters, thematic ideas, dialogues, plots and even language can all be invented to go with the art, but once they begin to address us as writers and individuals, truth cannot be compromised. Writers who betray the trust of readers would surely as the sun rises, have to one day first confront the sentinels who, for the good of society and protection of art and civilization, question the veracity of their claims before they are left at the mercy of the world that they have betrayed. Such has been the fate of James Frey, Greg Mortenson, Norma Khouri, Margaret Selzer, Forrest Carter, Binjamin Wilkomirski, Misha Defonseca, Martin Gray, Herman Rosenblat, Timothy Barrus to mention but a few. They all embellished or fabricated tales about themselves to sell their art. Sure the money came, fame followed, but shame crowned it all as they got exposed. (1) A finger in palm oil It is instructive that when a comprehensive list of writers who have betrayed their readers’ trust through lies is made, you will never find an African on that list. By African, I mean continental African writers, persons born in Africa, who experienced Africa, possibly started their writing career there, even if they ultimately got universal acclaim. Yes, you will not find them in that hall of infamy. As a student of political and social history, I do believe the reason for this can be found in the way African writers and the African people have historically fashioned their role and responsibility in society. Unlike in the West, where there are many agents of social and political change and progress, Africa has very few. Writers may not have the wealth, celebrity status or fame of popstars, but they are the only ones, even above our political leaders and traditional rulers, that we’ve placed on the mountain top and deified as consciences of our nations and communities. They are the oracular voices that sting us to action, the ones that speak truth to power. They are the activists and the rallying pillars of protest against a gangrened and incapacitated political system unable and unwilling to deliver on the accumulated visions from our stunted past and erased future. For the African writer in whatever literary genre, we often find that money is not the first consideration, but message. Now, someone is about to change all that. His name is Chris Abani. Something is rotten in Mr Abani’s Denmark and I’m not talking tail! I’m talking the whole head with swarms of multi-pronged lies buzzing all over him as he traverses globally from stage to stage! He’s bitten the forbidden fruit and the tragedy is he isn’t letting go. He has failed to read his history well to see that the road to redemption begins with an acceptance of the inevitable early enough to begin to rebuild. He wants to keep on milking the juicy lies until the literary undertakers actually walk through his door. They are coming! But I’m a latecomer to the Chris Abani mess. It all began for me on the morning of November 28, 2011 when I visited the Facebook page of my good friend, Meg Amechi and saw that she and some other friends and contributors were engaged in a discussion of Abani, based on an article written by Ikhide Ikheloa, titled, the “The Trials of Chris Abani and the Power of Empty Words”. First, I was amused that the usually mild-mannered Meg was waxing tough and declaring: “I do not want my son to look back at the history of Nigeria and believe that fourteen year old boys were killed on death row for the crimes someone in their family committed. Unless of course there is documentary proof of this!” That got me more curious. So, I clicked on the link to Mr Ikheloa’s piece. I read it, including all the links he provided to support his claims against Mr Abani. Basically, the story is that Chris Abani, who came to the West in 1991, had published a book of poetry in 2000 which he titled Kalakuta Republic. Mr Abani and his publishers claim that the poems in the collection are “a powerful collection of poems detailing the harrowing experiences endured by Abani and others at the hands of Nigeria's military regime in the late 1980s. In them he describes the characters that peopled his dark world, from the prison inmates to their torturers. While intense episodes are vividly described, it is above all a work greatly tinged with humanity and a durable tribute to the triumph of the human spirit”. Since then, Chris Abani has won worldwide acclaim for the book, with review after review and prize after prize, including Fellowships, all of which were premised on the assumed fact that Chris Abani actually suffered these harrowing experiences in a Nigerian prison. The great British writer and Nobel Laureate, Harold Pinter had this to say about Kalakuta Republic: “Chris Abani's poems seem to me to be totally naked. In no way are they pitying, never for a moment self-indulgent. They're economic, spare, concrete and precise, and truly alarming. They also express a profound and very tough compassion for all the people he saw die, all the people he saw mutilated around him. The other point here is that although the poems are precise and specific, they definitely refer to a universal state of affairs which is, of course, man's inhumanity to man. These are not simply documentary facts, they are coherent and harmonious pieces of work, I admire this very much." Pinter’s view above is representative of the sort of praise that Chris Abani has received from the literary high quarters all over the world. His agent, promoters, publishers and marketers then devised a programme which has Abani traversing the world, filling up auditoriums, regaling audiences with stories about his imprisonment and its connection to his art and generally delivering performances filled with anecdotes, humour and a lot of mirth, leaving listeners with the impression of a man who is no lesser than a secular saint. How can anyone go through such suffering for the sake of his art and still have such gaiety and joy? How can he still have belief in the goodness of the human being and go about preaching this beauty of humanity all over the world? Is this a literary Gandhi in designers’ shirts and shoes? His absolute mastery of his pitch, his smooth delivery and seeming intellectual depth all go down well with audiences around the world who, after every session of such talk, he entertains with interpretations of his art via a solo performance on the saxophone. Chris Abani is the closest thing to a literary celebrity on tour! (2) A word in a brother’s ear It isn’t that Chris Abani’s antics had escaped everyone up till now. In 2003, a group of fel
Mr. BABASAHEB PATIL0 stars
11 January 2012 at 12:16pm
ReportHi, I am Mr. Babasaheb Bhimgonda Patil PhD student of shivaji university, kolhapur (Maharashtra) INDIA doing reserch on tom keneally's novels will you arrange my metting with Dear Tom Keneally in between 15 th Feb to29 Feb 2012, and whether critical books on Tom's novel available in your Random House, Please,reply on my Email address. THANK YOU.
B.B.PATIL.0 stars
18 January 2012 at 11:45pm
ReportHallo i am Babasaheb patil student of shivaji university kolhpur (maharashtra) INDIA doing PhD on AustralianH Novelist Tom Keneally'War novels. so will you please make my contact with Tom Keneally For an small interview or provide mobail contact of him.please reply on bbpatil1967@gmail.com or dial me on 9822678294.Thank you.