Cirrus@Austlit

'Colomba talks about Australia's past in Thomas Keneally's novel Bring Larks and Heroes. Thomas Keneally's third novel, Bring Larks and Heroes, is among the most significant works of the 1960s to portray the penal society of Australia's past at "the world's worse end". Published during a time of deep social and cultural change in Australia, the book is an investigation of the mechanisms that lie at the foundation of an oppressively brutal society, in a world where the values of the "old" clash with, and are transformed by, the reality of the "new." The release of the novel marked a crucial moment in the life of its author by establishing him as a professional writer.' (Editor's abstract)