A review by merricatct
A Commonwealth of Thieves: The Improbable Birth of Australia by Thomas Keneally

3.0

If you're looking for a broad overview of Australia's early history - this is not it. It's certainly well-researched, and the author definitely knows his stuff. But this is what sometimes felt like a real-time description of the first four years or so of the British penal colony in Australia. There isn't really a structure to this book - it just starts, and then it just ends. It's not that this was dry - I don't mind dry or scholarly works - but this often felt lifeless. It does its job in conveying information, but not much else.