- This is a new novel from Kate Grenville and a journey back to the Thornhill family of the bestselling The Secret River. Sarah Thornhill, the youngest daughter of William Thornhill of the Hawkesbury River, has always believed she would marry the handsome Jack Langland. Me and Jack, she thinks, how could it go wrong? But there"s an ugly secret in Sarah"s family. It takes her into the darkness of the past, across an ocean and to a place she never imagined she would be. Kate Grenville takes us back to the early Australia of The Secret River and the Thornhill family. This is Sarah"s story. It"s a story of love lost and found, tangled histories and how it matters to keep stories alive.