From the beginning Jack and I was friends. Somehow our way of looking at things fittedtogether. He never called me Dolly, the way the others did, only my full and proper name.
 Sarah Thornhill is the youngest child of William Thornhill, convict-turned-landowner on theHawkesbury River. She grows up in the fine house her father is so proud of, a strong-willedyoung woman who's certain where her future lies.
 She's known Jack Langland since she was a child, and always loved him. But the past is waitingin ambush with its dark legacy.
 There's a secret in Sarah's family, a piece of the past kept hidden from the world and from her. Asecret Jack can't live with. A secret that changes everything, for both of them.
 Kate Grenville takes us back to the early Australia of The Secret River and the Thornhill family.This is Sarah's story. It's a story of tangled secrets, a story of loss and unlooked-for happiness,and a story about the silent spaces of the past.
 This powerful novel will enthrall readers of Kate Grenville's bestselling The Secret River, winnerof the Commonwealth Writers Prize.
