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Thomas Keneally was born in Sydney, Australia, in 1935 into an Irish Catholic family. He completed his schooling at various schools on the New South Wales north coast before starting theological studies for the Catholic priesthood in 1958. He abandoned this vocation in 1960, working first as a laborer and then as a clerical worker before becoming a schoolteacher. In 1964, he published his first novel, The Place at Whitton. He then left teaching and took a part-time job as an insurance collector while he continued to write. He married Judith Martin in 1965; their daughters were born in 1966 and 1967. In 1967, Keneally won the Miles Franklin Award for literature for Bring Larks and Heroes, and since then he has pursued writing as a full-time profession.

Thomas Keneally

Four of Keneally's novels have been short-listed for the Booker Prize, Britain's most prestigious award for fiction writing. They are The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith (1972), which explores the impact of the meeting of European and Aboriginal cultures from an Aboriginal point of view; Gossip from the Forest (1975), set during the First World War; Confederates (1979), about the American Civil War; and Schindler's Ark (1982; later published in the United States as Schindler's List), for which he won the prize. There was considerable controversy when Schindler's Ark won the Booker Prize, as many considered the book to be a work of journalistic reporting rather than a fiction novel. The following year Keneally was awarded the Order of Australia for his services to Australian literature. Keneally's other novels include A Family Madness (1985), To Asmara (1989), Flying Hero Class (1991), Woman of the Inner Sea (1993), and A River Town (1995). The Great Shame (1999), a nonfiction work, explores the fates of nineteenth-century Irishmen forced to emigrate to Australia.

Keneally also writes for the Australian press and travels widely, lecturing and presenting seminars and workshops. He lives in Sydney with his wife.

1. Schindler's List: Introduction
2. Thomas Keneally Biography
3. Summary
4. Characters
5. Themes
6. Style
7. Historical Context
8. Critical Overview
9. Essays and Criticism
10. Compare and Contrast
11. Topics for Further Study
12. Media Adaptations
13. What Do I Read Next?
14. Bibliography and Further Reading
15. Pictures
16. Copyright

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