The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith (Thomas Keneally)

The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith

Thomas Keneally

Blurb: When Jimmie Blacksmith marries a white woman the backlash from both Jimmie's tribe and white society initiates a series of dramatic events. As Jimmie tries to survive between two cultures, tensions reach a head when the Newbys, Jimmie's white employers, try to break up his marriage. The Newby women are murdered and Jimmie flees, pursued by police and vigilantes. The hunt intensifies as further murders are committed, and concludes with tragic results. 

Thomas Keneally's fictionalised account of the 19th century Aboriginal, Jimmy Governor, is a powerful story of a black man's revenge against an unjust and intolerant society.

ISBN: 0207197164 (Paperback)

Year: 1972

Publisher: A&R Classics

Pages: 178 (Fiction)

Links

1. Wikipedia page

2. IMDB page for the film adaption

3. Synopsis of the book

4. Education resource for the book

5. Buy from Amazon

Searching for Schindler (Tom Keneally)

Searching for Schindler

Tom Keneally

Blurb: A memoir of Tom's journey around the world to discover the complete story of Oskar Schindler and those on his now-famous list.

In 1980, Tom Keneally walked into a store in Beverly Hills owned by Polish Jew Leopold Pfefferberg Page to buy a new briefcase. For the next few years, Tom's life was taken over by this charismatic and driven man, known as Poldek, and the story of his saviour, the ambiguous hero Oskar Schindler.

Inspired by Poldek's vision, Tom's 1982 novel, Schindler's Ark, won the Booker Prize and ultimately became the Oscar-award-winning film Schindler's List.

Tom and Poldek travelled across the US, Germany, Israel, Austria and Poland, interviewing survivors and discovering their extraordinary stories. Searching for Schindler is very much Tom's journey; he reflects on his early days as a successful but less than confident writer, and how this book, the film it became and the people he met, changed his and his family's lives forever.

Filled with stories of Poldek, Steven Spielberg, Liam Neeson, Ralph Fiennes and many other fascinating characters, Searching for Schindler gives us a unique insight into the wonderful, warm, thinking, compassionate and very funny man that is Tom Keneally.

ISBN: 9781741666151 (Paperback)

Year: 2007

Publisher: Vintage Books

Pages: 304 (Non-Fiction)

Links

1. Review from The Independent

2. Buy from Amazon

3. Google books page

4. Author's Wikipedia page

5. Review from The Times

Abraham Lincoln: A Life (Thomas Keneally)

Abraham Lincoln: A Life

Thomas Keneally

Blurb: A master storyteller reveals Lincoln as he truly lived. Author of the award-winning novel that inspired the film Schindler's List and acclaimed for his recent Civil War biography, American Scoundrel, Thomas Keneally delves with relish - and a keen, fresh eye - into Abraham Lincoln's complicated persona. Abraham Lincoln depicts all the amazing man's triumphs, insecurities, and crushing defeats with the uncanny insight: his early poverty and the ambition that propelled him out of it; shaping of the man and his political philosophy by youthful exposure to Christianity, slavery, and business; his tempestuous marriage and his fatherly love. Abraham Lincoln is an incisive study of a turning point in our history and a revealing portrait of its pivotal figure, his greatness etched even more clearly in this very touching human story.

ISBN: 9780143114758 (Paperback)

Year: 2003

Publisher: Penguin

Pages: 183 (Non-Fiction)

Links

1. Buy the ebook

2. Blog review

3. Blogcritics review

4. Google books page

5. White House page on Abe