The Chant Of Jimmie Blacksmith (SIGNED)
Condition: SECONDHAND
This is a secondhand book. The jacket image is a photograph of the exact copy we have in stock. This image shows the condition of this book. Further condition remarks are below.
Edition: First US Edition
Condition remarks:
Book: Very good
Jacket: Very good
Pages: Good
Markings: Signed
Condition remarks: unclipped dj.
At the violent crossroads of two worlds — colonial white Australia and the ancient culture of the Aboriginal people — stands Jimmie Blacksmith, a young half-caste man raised by Methodist missionaries and trained to believe that hard work and Christian virtue will earn him a place in white society. The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith chronicles his doomed attempts to integrate, to build a life, and to be accepted, until a shattering act of violence against his white employers ignites one of the most dramatic manhunts in Australian history. Based on the true story of Jimmy Governor, who terrorised New South Wales in 1900, Thomas Keneally constructs a searing portrait of a man broken by a society that simultaneously shaped and rejected him. Keneally, one of Australia's most celebrated novelists and winner of the Booker Prize for Schindler's Ark, argues here with fierce moral clarity that racism is not merely a social ill but a systemic force capable of destroying the very souls it ostracises. His prose is spare yet visceral, drawing the reader deep into the ochre landscapes of the Australian bush even as it illuminates the psychological torment of a man trapped between two identities. A landmark of Australian literature, this novel raises questions about guilt, complicity, and belonging that continue to resonate — leaving the reader to wonder where, precisely, justice lies when an entire civilisation is the perpetrator.
Author: Thomas Keneally
Format: Hardback
Published: 1972, The Viking Press
Genre: Australian history
Edition: First US Edition
Condition remarks:
Book: Very good
Jacket: Very good
Pages: Good
Markings: Signed
Condition remarks: unclipped dj.
At the violent crossroads of two worlds — colonial white Australia and the ancient culture of the Aboriginal people — stands Jimmie Blacksmith, a young half-caste man raised by Methodist missionaries and trained to believe that hard work and Christian virtue will earn him a place in white society. The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith chronicles his doomed attempts to integrate, to build a life, and to be accepted, until a shattering act of violence against his white employers ignites one of the most dramatic manhunts in Australian history. Based on the true story of Jimmy Governor, who terrorised New South Wales in 1900, Thomas Keneally constructs a searing portrait of a man broken by a society that simultaneously shaped and rejected him. Keneally, one of Australia's most celebrated novelists and winner of the Booker Prize for Schindler's Ark, argues here with fierce moral clarity that racism is not merely a social ill but a systemic force capable of destroying the very souls it ostracises. His prose is spare yet visceral, drawing the reader deep into the ochre landscapes of the Australian bush even as it illuminates the psychological torment of a man trapped between two identities. A landmark of Australian literature, this novel raises questions about guilt, complicity, and belonging that continue to resonate — leaving the reader to wonder where, precisely, justice lies when an entire civilisation is the perpetrator.