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The Dickens Boy

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What to expect

In 1868, Charles Dickens dispatches his youngest child to Australia. Like his brother Alfred before him, sixteen-year-old Edward is expected to learn to apply himself in what his father considers to be the new land of opportunity.

Posted to a remote sheep station in New South Wales, Edward discovers that Charles Dickens' fame has reached even there, as has the gossip about his father's scandalous liaison with an actress. Amid colonists, ex-convicts, local tribespeople and a handful of eligible young women, Edward strives to be his own man - and keep secret the fact that he's read none of his father's novels.

Conjuring up a life of sheep-droving, horse-racing and cricket tournaments in a community riven with tensions and prejudice, the story of Edward's adventures also affords an intimate portrait of Dickens' himself. This vivacious novel is classic Keneally: historical figures and events re-imagined with verve, humour and compassion.

(P)2020 Penguin Random House Australia Ltd

Critics Review

An engrossing and transporting read
Financial Times
[A] genial, wry recreation of [Edward Dickens'] time in remote New South Wales
Daily Mail
A bustling picaresque tale . . . there are some unforgettably vivid scenes in this rompy but emotive story of bruised youth.
Mail on Sunday
[An] absorbing novel . . . Plorn himself is a joy
The Times
Keneally has brought off a notable double: a delightful and continuously interesting portrayal of mid-19th century life in the rolling sheep pastures of New South Wales and an acute and persuasive examination of the mystery that Charles Dickens still presents, and of the enduring fascination he exerts over us today.
Scotsman
The Dickens Boy . . . is energetic, even exuberant. It is in love with the abundance of life it negotiates.
The Sydney Morning Herald
An ingenious, hilarious novel . . . Keneally does what he does so well: he plucks people from the pages of history and gives them emotional lives
The Australian
A dashing, crisply written book
Saturday Paper
Keneally is a master at weaving historical figures and events into compelling works of fiction and so he does with his new book
Brisbane News
Rewarding terrain for a much-loved novelist
Gleaner
Tender and wry as the novel is, it has a tough-minded postcolonial core . . . Keneally's other life as a historian informs every page; his is an antique footnote swelled up to life-size
Australian Book Review
A vibrant novel
Woman & Home
Author Thomas Keneally
Narrator David Tredinnick
Duration 14 hours and 42 minutes
Release Date
ISBN 9781529345094
Format x-book®
Publisher Hodder & Stoughton
Genre Historical fiction
Availability GB, IE

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