Book description
In 1943, when Grace and Leo Waterhouse married in Australia, they were
part of a young generation ready to sacrifice themselves to win the war,
while being confident they would survive. Sixty years on, as Grace
recounts what happened to her doomed hero, she can say what she
suspected then: that for many men, bravery is its own end. The tale she
tells is one of great love, lost innocence, a charismatic but unstable
Irish commander, dashing undercover missions against the Japanese in
Singapore, and - in her eyes - reckless, foolhardy exploits. As fresh
details continue to emerge, Grace is forced to keep revising her picture
of what happened to Leo and his fellow commandoes - until she learns
about the final piece in the jigsaw, and an ultimate betrayal. As
absorbing as it is thought-provoking, this timely novel poses unsettling
questions about what drives men to battle and heroic deeds, and movingly
conveys the life-long effect on those who survive them.
'Both an absorbing wartime thriller and a thoroughly convincing study
of grief
Thomas Keneally began his writing career in 1964 and has published
twenty-five novels since. They include SCHINDLER'S ARK, which won the
Booker Prize in 1982 and was subsequently made into the film Schindler's
List, and THE CHANT OF JIMMIE BLACKSMITH, CONFEDERATES and GOSSIP FROM
THE FOREST, each of which was shortlisted for the Booker Prize. His most
recent novels are THE TYRANT'S NOVEL, THE WIDOW AND HER HERO and THE
PEOPLE'S TRAIN. He has also written several works of non-fiction,
including his boyhood memoir HOMEBUSH BOY, THE COMMONWEALTH OF THIEVES
and SEARCHING FOR SCHINDLER. He is married with two daughters and lives
in Sydney.
