{"product_id":"2026100009029-secondhand-the-playmaker-signed","title":"The Playmaker (SIGNED)","description":"\u003cp\u003eEdition: 1st ed., 1st pr.,\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eCondition remarks:\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBook: Very good\u003cbr\u003eJacket: Very good\u003cbr\u003ePages: Good\u003cbr\u003eMarkings: Signed\u003cbr\u003eCondition remarks: unclipped dj in mylar.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn the harsh, unforgiving wilderness of 1788 New South Wales, a young British officer named Ralph Clark receives an extraordinary commission: to stage a theatrical production of George Farquhar's The Recruiting Officer using a cast of convicted felons, at the direct behest of Governor Arthur Phillip. The Playmaker chronicles this improbable collision of high art and human desperation, as Clark navigates the treacherous social landscape of a penal colony teetering on the edge of starvation and chaos, all while wrestling with his own longing, conscience, and desire.\n\nThomas Keneally, the Booker Prize-winning author of Schindler's Ark, brings his signature blend of meticulous historical research and profound moral imagination to this richly textured novel. He presents the theatre rehearsal as a transformative crucible, in which the boundaries between convict and gaoler, performance and reality, and civilisation and savagery begin to dissolve with unsettling force. Keneally's prose is at once compassionate and unflinching, illuminating how art can become an act of radical humanity in the most brutalising of circumstances — and leaving the reader to wonder whether redemption, like a good performance, is merely the most convincing illusion of all.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Secondhand Stock","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":49336814207195,"sku":"2026100009029-SECONDHAND","price":60.0,"currency_code":"AUD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0523\/7646\/9701\/files\/ab06e935-94f1-4519-b8c9-839059edc6af.png?v=1789958588","url":"https:\/\/bookgrocer.com\/products\/2026100009029-secondhand-the-playmaker-signed","provider":"Book Grocer","version":"1.0","type":"link"}