The Widow and her Hero

by Thomas Keneally

It is some compensation for Grace Waterhouse the her young husband Leo, executed by the Japanese a month before the end of the Second World War, died bravely for a just cause. But in the subsequent decades of peace, the true story of his last, daring mission slowly emerges. For Grace, each revelation feels like a fresh wound. Unable to forgive those responsible, she is forced to reassess Leo’s self sacrifice and to question the heroic impulse that drove him to it.

(From Publisher).

Thomas Keneally began his writing career in 1964 and has published twenty-five novels since. They include Schindler’s Ark, which won the Booker Prize in 1982 and was subsequently made into the film Schindler’s List, and The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith, Confederates and Gossip from the Forest, each of which was shortlisted for the Booker Prize. He has also written several works of non-fiction, including his latest, Commonwealth of Thieves. He is married with two daughters and lives in Sydney.

A deep if painful insight into human nature in the form of a brilliantly composed "double - decked" novel revealing ethic ambiguity of history in its retrospect evaluation.