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AbstractHistoryArchive Description
'Will keeping the Japanese, Korean and Italian POWs of the Second World War alive in Australia keep Australian POWs alive and well wherever they are?
'In the spirit of The Daughters Of Mars, Tom Keneally's new novel brilliantly explores the intimacies of ordinary lives being played out against momentous world events.
'In Gawell, New South Wales, a prisoner-of-war camp to house European, Korean and Japanese captives is built close to a farming community. Alice is a young woman living a dull life with her father-in-law on his farm while her new husband first fights, then is taken prisoner, in Greece. When Giancarlo, an Italian POW and anarchist from Gawell's camp, is assigned to work on their farm, Alice's view of the world and her self-knowledge are dramatically expanded.
'But what most challenges Alice and the town is the foreignness of the Japanese compound and its culture, entirely perplexing to the inmates' captors. Driven by a desperate need to validate the funerals already held for them in Japan, the prisoners vote to take part in an outbreak, and the bloodshed and chaos this precipitates shatter the certainties and safeties of all who inhabit the region.' (Publisher's blurb)
Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of
Other Formats
- Braille.
- Sound recording.
- Large print.
Works about this Work
-
The Cowra Breakout : Remembering and Reflecting on Australia’s Biggest Prison Escape 75 Years on
2019
single work
— Appears in: The Conversation , 5 August 2019;'Today (August 5) marks the 75th anniversary of Australia’s largest prison escape: the Cowra breakout, in New South Wales, during the second world war. In fact, it is one of the largest prison escapes in world history, but unless you are a keen war historian you may have never heard about it.' (Introduction)
-
Enemies of Honor : Heroes and Prisoners of War in Richard Flanagan’s The Narrow Road to the Deep North and Tom Keneally’s Shame and the Captives
2016
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Antipodes , June vol. 30 no. 1 2016; (p. 159-171) 'The heroism of the Australian soldier abroad is a subject often explored by Australian writers. Representations have fluctuated somewhat from the time of the First World War, but tales of valor and stoic endurance have elicited a potent fascination from this time. Among many examples is Frederic Manning's The Middle Parts of Fortune (1929), throughout which, despite the hardships and privations of the Western Front and the various enticements to accept commissions elsewhere, the protagonist prefers the lot of the everyday soldiers, among whom heroism is "a common thing" (94). The serving men are presented not as types but as individuals, but each is secure in the conviction that "one must not break" (13). The tradition continues in A. B. Facey's memoir of Gallipoli, A Fortunate Life (1981), in which "despite the fear men mostly took everything that was thrown at them" (260) and bonded together in "love and trust" (278), and more recently in Christopher Koch's Highways to a War (1995), which tells of a combat cameraman who joins the struggle against the Khmer Rouge. Mike Langford is athletic and charming, he is preoccupied with "the outcast and the vulnerable" (159), and he saves many lives ultimately at the cost of his own. He is portrayed indisputably as a "hem" (342). Clam Rhoden argues that Australian war literature "diverges from its international counterparts chiefly, but not solely, because most Australian accounts use a classical heroic tradition that others have abandoned for a disillusioned style of narration." Similarly, Robin Gerster notes that Australian writers are "critical of war but almost blindly impressed by warlike achievements" (257). However, there has long been a definitive thread of dissent interwoven into the heroic tradition, in which Martin Boyd's When Blackbirds Sing (1962) is one of the most notable examples. In Boyd's novel, Dominic Langton feels "a common humanity" with the German soldiers he is required to destroy (75). He sees "suicidal futility" where others perceive a glorious defense of civilization (114). Similarly, David Maloufs Fly Away Peter (1982) describes senseless carnage in another country's war. Like Langton, however, Jim Saddler sees the Germans as individuals, as "something more than the enemy" (80).' (Introduction) -
A National (Diasporic?) Living Treasure : Thomas Keneally
2015
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Le Simplegadi , November no. 14 2015; (p. 20-27) Although Thomas Keneally is firmly located as a national figure, his international literary career and his novels’ inspection of colonial exile, Aboriginal alienation, and movements of people throughout history reflect aspects of diasporic experience, while pushing the term itself into wider meaning of the transnational. -
‘Shame and the Captives’ and ‘The Evening Chorus’
2015
single work
review
— Appears in: The New York Times Book Review , 17 April 2015; (p. 19)
— Review of Shame and the Captives 2013 single work novel -
Writers' War of Words
2014
single work
column
— Appears in: The Advertiser , 28 February 2014; (p. 39)
-
All Imprisoned by Cruel Circumstance
2013
single work
review
— Appears in: The Weekend Australian , 26-27 October 2013; (p. 21)
— Review of Shame and the Captives 2013 single work novel -
Shame and the Captives by Thomas Keneally
2013
single work
review
— Appears in: The Guardian Australia , 1 November 2013;
— Review of Shame and the Captives 2013 single work novel -
Stealing Tales from History
2013
single work
review
— Appears in: The Canberra Times , 9 November 2013; (p. 19)
— Review of Shame and the Captives 2013 single work novel -
'Hysteria' Over Asylum Seekers Angers Keneally
2013
single work
review
— Appears in: The Canberra Times , 22 November 2013; (p. 7)
— Review of Shame and the Captives 2013 single work novel -
War-Time Event Keeps Reader Captive
2013
single work
review
— Appears in: The Courier-Mail , 23 November 2013; (p. 21)
— Review of Shame and the Captives 2013 single work novel -
Tom Keneally
The Prisoner of His Stories
2013
single work
interview
— Appears in: The Sydney Morning Herald , 9 November 2013; (p. 28-29) The Age , 9 November 2013; (p. 24) -
Human Face of Breakout
2014
single work
column
— Appears in: The West Australian , 7 January 2014; (p. 6-7) -
Writers' War of Words
2014
single work
column
— Appears in: The Advertiser , 28 February 2014; (p. 39) -
A National (Diasporic?) Living Treasure : Thomas Keneally
2015
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Le Simplegadi , November no. 14 2015; (p. 20-27) Although Thomas Keneally is firmly located as a national figure, his international literary career and his novels’ inspection of colonial exile, Aboriginal alienation, and movements of people throughout history reflect aspects of diasporic experience, while pushing the term itself into wider meaning of the transnational. -
Enemies of Honor : Heroes and Prisoners of War in Richard Flanagan’s The Narrow Road to the Deep North and Tom Keneally’s Shame and the Captives
2016
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Antipodes , June vol. 30 no. 1 2016; (p. 159-171) 'The heroism of the Australian soldier abroad is a subject often explored by Australian writers. Representations have fluctuated somewhat from the time of the First World War, but tales of valor and stoic endurance have elicited a potent fascination from this time. Among many examples is Frederic Manning's The Middle Parts of Fortune (1929), throughout which, despite the hardships and privations of the Western Front and the various enticements to accept commissions elsewhere, the protagonist prefers the lot of the everyday soldiers, among whom heroism is "a common thing" (94). The serving men are presented not as types but as individuals, but each is secure in the conviction that "one must not break" (13). The tradition continues in A. B. Facey's memoir of Gallipoli, A Fortunate Life (1981), in which "despite the fear men mostly took everything that was thrown at them" (260) and bonded together in "love and trust" (278), and more recently in Christopher Koch's Highways to a War (1995), which tells of a combat cameraman who joins the struggle against the Khmer Rouge. Mike Langford is athletic and charming, he is preoccupied with "the outcast and the vulnerable" (159), and he saves many lives ultimately at the cost of his own. He is portrayed indisputably as a "hem" (342). Clam Rhoden argues that Australian war literature "diverges from its international counterparts chiefly, but not solely, because most Australian accounts use a classical heroic tradition that others have abandoned for a disillusioned style of narration." Similarly, Robin Gerster notes that Australian writers are "critical of war but almost blindly impressed by warlike achievements" (257). However, there has long been a definitive thread of dissent interwoven into the heroic tradition, in which Martin Boyd's When Blackbirds Sing (1962) is one of the most notable examples. In Boyd's novel, Dominic Langton feels "a common humanity" with the German soldiers he is required to destroy (75). He sees "suicidal futility" where others perceive a glorious defense of civilization (114). Similarly, David Maloufs Fly Away Peter (1982) describes senseless carnage in another country's war. Like Langton, however, Jim Saddler sees the Germans as individuals, as "something more than the enemy" (80).' (Introduction)
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