The Book of Science and Antiquities
- Author Thomas Keneally
- Narrator Paul Haley
- Publisher Hodder & Stoughton
- Run Time 9 hours and 43 minutes
- Format Audio
- Genre Fiction: general and literary, Modern and contemporary fiction.
Titles Purchased
- 1-5
- 6-10
- 11-15
- 16-20
- Over 20
Price p/Title
- €9.95
- €8.95
- €7.95
- €6.95
- €5.95
Listen to a sample
What to expect
Shade lives with his second wife amid their clan on the shores of a bountiful lake. A peaceable man, he knows that when danger threatens, the Hero ancestors will call on him to kill, or sacrifice himself, to save his people.
Over 40,000 years later, Shade's remains are unearthed near the now dry Lake Learned in New South Wales. The sensational discovery fascinates Shelby Apple, a documentary film maker who tracks the controversies it provokes about who the continent's first inhabitants were and where Shade's bones belong.
Shelby goes on to follow his own heroes to the battlefields of Eritrea and the Rift Valley where Homo sapiens sprang from. When he, too, faces mortality and looks back on his passions, ideals and sorely tested marriage, Learned Man stands as an enduring spirit, a fellow player in the long, ever-evolving story of humankind.
Critics Review
-
Like The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith, it uncovers a rich hidden seam in Australian history; like Schindler’s Ark, it addresses appalling violence with impressive tact . . . passionate and heartfelt
The Times -
Wonderfully imaginative
Mail on Sunday -
Electric with life, passion and appetite . . . intensely personal, hugely inventive and often moving novel.
Australian -
Bristles with what makes life worth living . . . a book of wonder and regular brilliance . . . Keneally’s art is to make the profound accessible. The important is rendered seamlessly . . . In a book that teems with journeys, both spiritual and physical, he finds something true, brave and powerful to say about mankind’s fate.
Herald (Glasgow) -
A paean to belonging, idealism and human evolution.
The i -
Learned’s voice is a wonderful creation: modern, compassionate and filled with moral authority . . . Both perspectives will fascinate Keneally’s dedicated followers who have come to expect daring narratives dealing with themes of family, morality and moral responsibility.
Australian Bookseller
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