Kate Grenville

Daniel Rooke is Astronomer with the First Fleet landing on the shores of New South Wales. He sets up his observatory as the newcomers struggle to establish a settlement for themselves . Gradually Rooke gets to know the local Aboriginal people and establishes a special bond with one child in particular.

It is 1788. Twenty-one-year-old Elizabeth is hungry for life but, as the ward of a Devon clergyman, knows she has few prospects. When proud, scarred soldier John Macarthur promises her the earth one midsummer's night, she believes him.

But Elizabeth soon realises she has made a terrible mistake. Her new husband is reckless, tormented, driven by some dark rage at the world. He tells her he is to take up a position as Lieutenant in a New South Wales penal colony and she has no choice but to go. Sailing for six months to the far side of the globe with a child growing inside her, she arrives to find Sydney Town a brutal, dusty, hungry place of makeshift shelters, failing crops, scheming and rumours.

All her life she has learned to be obliging, to fold herself up small. Now, in the vast landscapes of an unknown continent, Elizabeth has to discover a strength she never imagined, and passions she could never express.

Inspired by the real life of a remarkable woman, this is an extraordinarily rich, beautifully wrought novel of resilience, courage and the mystery of human desire.

In 1806, whilst trying to support his family, Thames waterman William Thornhill, makes a bad mistake and is transported to New South Wales with his wife. They work to buy William's freedom and a plot of land, with an aboriginal camp nearby. Soon William has to make the most difficult decision of his life.