Shame and the Captives - Tom Keneally

Vintage Australia - Trade paperback - 400 pages - $39.99

Tom Keneally's latest novel is set in the fictional town of Gawell but takes the events of the Cowra Breakout in 1944 as its inspiration. A mix of historical fact and legendary storytelling in true Keneally style it makes for another masterpiece from this great contemporary Australian writer.

About the author:

Thomas Keneally won the Booker Prize in 1982 with Schindler's Ark, later made into the Academy Award-winning film Schindler's List by Steven Spielberg. His non-fiction includes the memoir Searching For Schindler and Three Famines, an LA Times Book of the Year, and the histories The Commonwealth Of Thieves, The Great Shame and American Scoundrel. His fiction includes The Daughters Of Mars, The Widow And Her Hero (shortlisted for the Prime Minister's Literary Award), An Angel In Australia and Bettany's Book. 

His novels The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith, Gossip from the Forest, and Confederates were all shortlisted for the Booker Prize, while Bring Larks and Heroes and Three Cheers For The Paraclete won the Miles Franklin Award. The People's Train was longlisted for the Miles Franklin Award and shortlisted for the Commonwealth Writers Prize, South East Asia division.