Kate Grenville

Kate Grenville

Kate Grenville is a best-selling Australian novelist and author of powerful and highly credible historical fiction that engages readers in the lives of fascinating characters and vivid stories of Australia’s past...
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Kate Grenville is an Australian author whose popular titles include The Lieutenant, One Life: My Mother’s Story, Sarah Thornhill, and The Secret River – these books by Kate Grenville are now available to listen to as audiobooks.

The Secret River, published in 2005, earned Grenville many literary awards including the Commonwealth Prize for Literature and was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize and the Miles Franklin Award. It is an international best-seller and has been adapted for the stage and made into a television mini-series that was broadcast on the ABC in 2015.

The Secret River is a gripping portrait of the struggle and conflict of dispossession in early colonial Australia. The story takes us to a time in the early nineteenth century on the banks of the Hawkesbury River, north of Sydney, where English settlers come face to face with the Indigenous Darug people who have long called the region home. The Secret River has been adapted for the stage by the Sydney Theatre Company, and it has also been made into a two-part television mini-series aired on the ABC.

The Lieutenant and Sarah Thornhill are sequels to The Secret River. Grenville describes The Secret River, The Lieutenant, and Sarah Thornhill as a “loose trilogy about the first three generations of colonial Australia”.

Grenville was first published at age 30 with a short story appearing in Southerly, the University of Sydney’s literary magazine. She lists fellow Australian author Patrick White among the writers who have influenced her work – for showing Australian writers that writing about Australian landscapes and society was “just as rich a source of all human experience, both good and bad” as writing about the Northern Hemisphere.

Books by Kate Grenville as Audiobooks

One Life cover art
Sarah Thornhill cover art
The Lieutenant cover art
The Secret River cover art
Grenville’s writing has earned her many literary awards including The Australian/Vogel’s Literary Award, the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize, and the NSW Premier’s Literary Awards.

Grenville completed her undergraduate degree at the University of Sydney and her masters in creative writing at the University of Colorado. She has a Doctorate of Creative Arts from the University of Technology Sydney and has been made an Honorary Doctor of Letters by the University of New South Wales, the University of Sydney, and Macquarie University. Before becoming an author Grenville worked in the film and television industries. Grenville was born 14 October 1950, in Sydney. Grenville completed her undergraduate degree at the University of Sydney and her masters in creative writing at the University of Colorado. She has a Doctorate of Creative Arts from the University of Technology Sydney and has been made an Honorary Doctor of Letters by the University of New South Wales, the University of Sydney, and Macquarie University. Before becoming an author Grenville worked in the film and television industries. Grenville was born 14 October 1950, in Sydney.

Audiobook Review — The Secret River by Kate Grenville

Audiobook Review — The Lieutenant by Kate Grenville