William Thornill was born in one of the poorest places in England, seeing himself forced to steal in order to survive. Sal is his neighbour, who is truly his soulmate and who becomes his wife once he finishes his intership as a boatman with Sal's father. The river Thames is his life. However, he gets used to stealing parts of the shipments he has to cross from one side to the other of the river, untill he is discovered and sentenced to death.
Sal truly saves his life as she encourages him to write to the authorities, sending him and his family to the prison island of Australia.
Now starts a new phase in their lives. At the beginning in Sydney, but once William gets a job transporting goods from the residents living in the shores of the river to the main city. Soon, he finds a place he sees as his future home: Thornhill's Point. However, his idyllic idea of how to make the land productive encounters the existence of aboriginal people.
Through the story, Thornhill and his family finds themselves having to choose between two approaches towards the aborigines: peaceful co-existence, as his neighbour Blackwood has achieved; or violence, the aggressive way another neighbour called Smasher chooses.
The 'civilised' convicts, who have become respectable citizents in the new lands, end up behaving quite 'uncivilised', as the author questions who are the savages. When they are angered, accusing the aborigines of stealing the products of their efforts, they use the word 'thieves', treating the aborigines the same way they were treated in London.
This story of colonisation depicts the effects it had in the aboriginal communities, erasing them from their own lands, enslaving them to the colonisers and their customs, being the victims of a mechanical operation to extinguish them completely.
Ana Ovejero
mail: ana.ovejero@gmail.com
instagram:ananbooks
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