Thomas Keneally, the bestselling author of The Daughters of Mars and
Schindler's List, brings his "insightful and nimble prose" (The New
York Times Book Review) to this exquisite exploration of community and
country, love and morality, set in both prehistoric and modern
Australia.
An award-winning documentary filmmaker, Shelby Apple is obsessed with
reimagining the full story of the Learned Man--a prehistoric man whose
remains are believed to be the link between Africa and ancient
Australia. From Vietnam to northern Africa and the Australian Outback,
Shelby searches for understanding of this enigmatic man from the ancient
past, unaware that the two men share a great deal in common.
Some 40,000 years in the past, the Learned Man has made his home
alongside other members of his tribe. Complex and deeply introspective,
he reveres tradition, loyalty, and respect for his ancestors. Willing to
sacrifice himself for the greater good, the Learned Man cannot conceive
that a man millennia later could relate to him in heart and feeling.
In this "meditation on last things, but still electric with life,
passion and appetite" (The Australian), Thomas Keneally weaves an
extraordinary dual narrative that effortlessly transports you around the
world and across time, offering "a hymn to idealism and to human
development" (Sydney Morning Herald).
