A River Town (48 page)

Thomas Keneally reached a new level of renown as one of Australia’s—and the world’s—leading literary figures with the release of Stephen Spielberg’s Academy Award-winning film adaptation of
Schindler’s List
, for which Thomas Keneally had won the prestigious Booker Prize upon its original publication. Among Thomas Keneally’s most well-known novels are
The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith, Confederates, Gossip from the Forest
, and, most recently,
Woman of the Inner Sea
. Actively involved in Australia’s republican movement, he has served on numerous government councils and commissions in his native country and has taught at universities there and in the United States. Currently he is a Distinguished Professor in the English Department at the University of California, Irvine. Married, with two daughters, he divides his time between California and Sydney.