Cover of The Secret River

The Secret River

Kate Grenville, 2005

Australian novelist, born 1950. Won the Women's Prize for Fiction in 2001.

The Secret River is a 2005 novel by Kate Grenville. It was shortlisted for the Booker Prize in 2006.

  • Readers' Favourite

In historical fiction

On 2 of the 15 lists it was eligible for.

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At a glance

Author
Kate Grenville
First published
2005
Length
368 pages (UK paperback)
Awards
Genre
Historical fiction, Empire and colonialism, Class and society, Adventure

Is The Secret River worth reading?

2 of the 15 best-of lists it could have made include it: the Booker Prize and The Big Jubilee Read (BBC Arts and The Reading Agency).

ListPlaceOriginal
Booker Prize (winners and shortlists) (Booker Prize Foundation, 2006)ShortlistSee the list
The Big Jubilee Read (BBC Arts and The Reading Agency, 2022)ListedSee the list

Best edition of The Secret River

The edition we link to is the Canongate Canons paperback (2018), 368 pages.

Publisher
Canongate Canons (paperback, 2018)
Pages
368
ISBN
9781782118879

How critics, prizes and readers rate The Secret River

Prize juries and readers rate it about equally: it earned 22% on prize lists and 17% on readers' and booksellers' lists, against 0% on critics' lists.

Critics
0%
Prizes
22%
Readers and booksellers
17%

Share of the available points it earned on each kind of list it was eligible for. How the scores work

Books like The Secret River

If you liked The Secret River, try Catch-22, Wolf Hall or Midnight's Children.

Lists used on this page