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 Edition
Condition remarks:
Book: Good
Jacket: Wear and tear with damage
Pages: Tanning and foxing
Markings: Signed
Condition remarks: DJ: edgeworn. Binding: remains tight. Pages: some foxing on the book block.
At the violent fault line where colonial Australia's brutal racial hierarchies collide with one man's desperate desire for belonging, The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith chronicles the tragic and explosive story of Jimmie Blacksmith, a young man of Aboriginal and white heritage navigating a society that refuses to grant him a place within it. Set against the backdrop of the Federation era at the dawn of the twentieth century, this searing historical novel is based on the true story of Jimmy Governor, whose frustrated ambitions and relentless exploitation at the hands of white settlers culminate in a spree of violence that shocks the nascent nation of Australia. Keneally's prose is taut and unflinching, presenting the systemic racism and broken promises of white Australia with forensic clarity, while never reducing Jimmie to a mere symbol — he remains a fully realised, deeply human figure caught in an impossible trap. Rooted in meticulous historical research, the novel argues that the violence it depicts is not an aberration but an inevitable consequence of a society built on dispossession and broken faith — a question that continues to haunt the Australian conscience to this day.
Author: Thomas Keneally
Format: Hardback
Published: 1972, Angus and Robertson
Genre: Australian history
Edition: First Edition
Condition remarks:
Book: Good
Jacket: Wear and tear with damage
Pages: Tanning and foxing
Markings: Signed
Condition remarks: DJ: edgeworn. Binding: remains tight. Pages: some foxing on the book block.
At the violent fault line where colonial Australia's brutal racial hierarchies collide with one man's desperate desire for belonging, The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith chronicles the tragic and explosive story of Jimmie Blacksmith, a young man of Aboriginal and white heritage navigating a society that refuses to grant him a place within it. Set against the backdrop of the Federation era at the dawn of the twentieth century, this searing historical novel is based on the true story of Jimmy Governor, whose frustrated ambitions and relentless exploitation at the hands of white settlers culminate in a spree of violence that shocks the nascent nation of Australia. Keneally's prose is taut and unflinching, presenting the systemic racism and broken promises of white Australia with forensic clarity, while never reducing Jimmie to a mere symbol — he remains a fully realised, deeply human figure caught in an impossible trap. Rooted in meticulous historical research, the novel argues that the violence it depicts is not an aberration but an inevitable consequence of a society built on dispossession and broken faith — a question that continues to haunt the Australian conscience to this day.