On November 2, member Maryliz Q. presented on the works of Australian author Kate Grenvillle. Ms. Grenville’s trilogy “The Secret River” explores the emotional lives of early Australian transported settlers and their descendents, as well as the Indigenous people’s they displaced. Kate Grenville’s fiction looks beyond the dates and facts to provide history with emotional depth. Her major themes are colonization, the class system, loss, and what land ownership means.

Kate Grenville’s most recent fictional work is the novel “A Room Made of Leaves”, a “fake memoir” of a wife of a well known Australian magnate. A video clip of Kate Grenville discussing this book in a virtual book launch by the National Library of Australia can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hCuGEdqUIkw.

Maryliz was able to contact Kate Grenville, who responded to questions about what it means to be an Australian writer and why she chose the genre of historical fiction.

More information on the life and works (which includes non-fiction) of Kate Grenville can be found in the presentation summary: https://wordpress.com/page/calgarywomensliteraryclub.com/7537.

Shawna M.