Homebush boy - Thomas Keneally

In this vivacious memoir, Thomas Keneally conjures up his youthful self at a pivotal period in his life - as a red-haired teenager who idolised Gerald Manley Hopkins, had visions of being a sporting hero, and dreamed of winning the heart of the alluring Bernadette Curran. The one role he did not see himself playing was priest, despite the encouragement of the Brothers at his Catholic school - until Bernadette announced her intention of becoming a nun. Drawing an affectionate portrait of the people who inspired and influenced him, Keneally beautifully captures the agonies and the ecstasies of adolescence.

Thomas Keneally began his writing career in 1964 and has published thirty-one 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. His most recent novels include The Daughters Of Mars, which was shortlisted for the Walter Scott Prize in 2013, Napoleon's Last Island, Crimes of the Father and The Book of Science and Antiquities. He has also written several works of non-fiction, including his memoir Homebush Boy, Searching for Schindler and Australians. He is married with two daughters and lives in Sydney.

A wonderful little classic . . . The Catcher In The Rye meets the language of Dylan Thomas
The Sunday Times

A wonderful memoir [which] evokes Joyce's A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man . . . Buy it and feel, for once, better
Literary Review

A delightful book
Daily Express

Fascinating
Time Out

Keneally is particularly good on the parental relationships . . . his disarming lightness of touch reveals self-analysis of a high order
The Times

Magical
Independent on Sunday