SHORTLISTED FOR THE WALTER SCOTT PRIZE FOR HISTORICAL FICTION - the new novel from the Women's Prize for Fiction winner and Man Booker prize-shortlisted author of The Secret River

It is 1788. When twenty-one-year-old Elizabeth marries the arrogant and hot-headed soldier John Macarthur, she soon realises she has made a terrible mistake. Forced to travel with him to New South Wales, she arrives to find Sydney Town a brutal, dusty, hungry place of makeshift shelters, failing crops, scheming and rumours. All her life she has learned to fold herself up small. Now, in the vast landscapes of an unknown continent, Elizabeth has to discover a strength she never imagined, and passions she could never express.

Inspired by the real life of a remarkable woman, this is an extraordinarily rich, beautifully wrought novel of resilience, courage and the mystery of human desire.

"Beautifully written, insistently eloquent and expressive of connection . . . [a] stunning literary achievement" - * Guardian *

"Kate Grenville spins a delicately teasing novel about the inherent untrustworthiness of the official record . . . beautiful and subtle" - * Financial Times *

"Grenville cleverly uses Elizabeth's bland and pleasant missives home, showing that they were a carefully constructed fiction. The real Elizabeth - passionate, clever and endlessly resilient - is brilliantly conjured" - * The Times *

"Kate Grenville gives voice to this reticent woman, allowing her smart, sparky, shrewd heroine a chance "at last to speak" . . . eloquent [and] evocative" - * Daily Mail *

"The absorbing story of a woman discovering herself in the vast expanse of a new world, told in rich, insightful prose" - * Sunday Times *

"Evocative . . . [A] gorgeous, generous novel" - * Sunday Express *

"Historical fiction at its best . . . breathtaking . . . [Elizabeth is a] plucky, sharp-minded young woman" - * Good Housekeeping *

"Elizabeth Macarthur manages her complicated life with spirit and passion, cunning and sly wit . . . Kate Grenville's return to the territory of The Secret River is historical fiction turned inside out, a stunning sleight of hand by one of our most original writers" - * Australian Arts Review *

"An imaginative depiction of a relationship forged in the earliest days of the Australian colony . . . an engaging book" - * Guardian *