Victim of the Aurora

by Thomas Keneally

The thrilling story of an ill-fated expedition to the South Pole
by the bestselling and award-winning author of Schindler's List.

In the waning years of the Edwardian era, a group of English gentleman- adventurers led by Sir Eugene Stewart launched an expedition to reach the South Pole. More than sixty years later, Anthony Piers, the official artist of the New British South Polar Expedition, finally unveils the sobering
conditions of their perilous journey: raging wind, bitter cold, fierce hunger, absolute darkness-and murder.

The first two decades of the twentieth century were known as the "heroic era" of Antarctic exploration. In 1911, Roald Amundsen reached the South Pole. Weeks later, doomed British explorer Robert Falcon Scott arrived-and then perished in a blizzard. And in 1914, Ernest Shackleton embarked on his infamous voyage to Antarctica. Set during this epic period of adventure and discovery, Victim of the Aurora re-creates a thrilling time in an unforgiving place and is a brilliantly plotted tale of psychological suspense.

Genres: Historical Fiction, Fiction, Mystery, Adventure, Travel, Australia, Thriller

219 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1977

About the author

Thomas Michael Keneally, AO (born 7 October 1935) is an Australian novelist, playwright and author of non-fiction. He is best known for writing Schindler's Ark, the Booker Prize-winning novel of 1982, which was inspired by the efforts of Poldek Pfefferberg, a Holocaust survivor. The book would later be adapted to Steven Spielberg's Schindler's List (1993), which won the Academy Award for Best Picture.

Often published under the name Tom Keneally in Australia.

Life and Career:

Born in Sydney, Keneally was educated at St Patrick's College, Strathfield, where a writing prize was named after him. He entered St Patrick's Seminary, Manly to train as a Catholic priest but left before his ordination. He worked as a Sydney schoolteacher before his success as a novelist, and he was a lecturer at the University of New England (1968–70). He has also written screenplays, memoirs and non-fiction books.

Keneally was known as "Mick" until 1964 but began using the name Thomas when he started publishing, after advice from his publisher to use what was really his first name. He is most famous for his Schindler's Ark (1982) (later republished as Schindler's List), which won the Booker Prize and is the basis of the film Schindler's List (1993). Many of his novels are reworkings of historical material, although modern in their psychology and style.

Keneally has also acted in a handful of films. He had a small role in The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith (based on his novel) and played Father Marshall in the Fred Schepisi movie, The Devil's Playground (1976) (not to be confused with a similarly-titled documentary by Lucy Walker about the Amish rite of passage called rumspringa).

In 1983, he was made an Officer of the Order of Australia (AO). He is an Australian Living Treasure.

He is a strong advocate of the Australian republic, meaning the severing of all ties with the British monarchy, and published a book on the subject in Our Republic (1993). Several of his Republican essays appear on the web site of the Australian Republican Movement.

Keneally is a keen supporter of rugby league football, in particular the Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles club of the NRL. He made an appearance in the rugby league drama film The Final Winter (2007).

In March 2009, the Prime Minister of Australia, Kevin Rudd, gave an autographed copy of Keneally's Lincoln biography to President Barack Obama as a state gift.

Most recently Thomas Keneally featured as a writer in the critically acclaimed Australian drama, Our Sunburnt Country.

Thomas Keneally's nephew Ben is married to the former NSW Premier, Kristina Keneally.

Reviews

[Kathryn · Rating 2 out of 5]

I think listening to this as an audiobook was not ideal for this book - in hindsight, I think reading it as a regular book and being able to flick back and forth would have been more beneficial. I also put it aside for 2 weeks when I went on holiday, which also didn't help with keeping the storyline and characters straight in my mind. I liked the setting of Antarctica, and maybe one day I'll read this as a normal book and may appreciate it more.

[Christine · Rating 4 out of 5]

What is it about men and polar ice? And what is it about those of us who never do anything so . . . well, pick your adjective, but read about it anyway?

Keneally's book details the story of an ill fated, perhaps, pole trip where there is a murder. Imagine, the middle of nowhere, a small shack and some one is a killer.

Unless that ghost isn't a ghost.

This is far shorter (and pre-dates) Simmons book The Terror. It als is far more of a character study and the struggle to come to terms not only with the times and right and wrong. I can see why Peter Ackroyd loved it.

[Allegra · Rating 2 out of 5]

“I refuse to believe the greatest polar expedition of its day could be destroyed by … by homosexual undermining.” ⬅️ REAL DIALOGUE SPOKEN OUT LOUD BY THE BILSON EXPY IN THIS BOOK 😭

[Lisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Proving yet again just how prolific Thomas Keneally (b.1935) was, even in his early career, Victim of the Aurora (1977) was his twelfth book, written some years before his award-winning Schindler's Ark (1982).  Wikipedia says his bibliography is incomplete, but (as of 2024) it still lists 67 books, 41 of which are novels (four co-authored with his daughter Meg Keneally).  A completist has her work cut out for her... I've read fifteen of them so far. 

No wonder the critic Peter Pierce is quoted at Wikipedia as saying:

Keneally can sometimes seem the nearest that we have to a Balzac of our literature; he is in his own rich and idiosyncratic ways the author of an Australian 'human comedy'.

The interesting thing about Keneally's Australian 'human comedy' is that it ranges far and wide.  His canvas is wider than Balzac's: Victim of the Aurora is set in Antarctica.  According to his biographer Stephanie Evans Steggall in Interestingly Enough, the Life of Tom Keneally (2015), Keneally was fascinated by Antarctica, and unsuccessfully badgered the Australian Powers-That-Be to visit it until in 1968 the Americans offered to take him on one of their forays to the pure and terrible continent.  He had been having trouble bringing together his story about an aged Antarctic survivor obsessed with something that had happened more than forty years previously, and — armed with the experience that gave his polar setting superb authenticity — he returned from that visit keen to get on with what was going to be a trilogy set in Antarctica.  His return coincided with a position at the University of New England in Armidale, which he'd accepted apparently because of his interest in enclosed groups,  as can be seen in his novels set in seminaries and in Bring Larks and Heroes.  The novel On Ice, published as The Survivor (1969) was Keneally's 'campus novel' bringing together the two communities: Antarctica and academia.

He had always been drawn to the unspoken tensions in an all-male society and wanted to test his belief that there could not be pleasant fraternity on those arduous polar expeditions.  There were bound to be secrets and betrayals among men who lived together too long. (Interestingly Enough, p134)

The Survivor was not a successful novel though it did better in America than here and was made into a TV version by the ABC. But Keneally turned to the topic of polar obsessions and betrayals with A Victim of the Aurora, published in 1977 by Collins (UK).  From the dustjacket synopsis of that edition, Keneally's ambitions are clear...

To read the rest of my review please visit https://anzlitlovers.com/2024/12/10/v...

[Josh Kaufman · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a rollercoaster of a book in terms of how much I enjoyed it. I loved the first half so much because it really built up a well rounded suspense that kept me turning the pages. All of the characters were so deeply interesting especially Sir Eugene Stewart and Anthony Piers. The mystery and intrigue that surrounded the murder in the arctic made it feel like I was there trying to figure it out with them in the Antarctic bunker. What almost gave this book a ruining rating happened about halfway. The stupid Forbes-Chalmers bit where it ended up being a real guy was the dumbest thing I ever read and it had no bearing on the story whatsoever. It somehow was used as a convenient way for Piers to remember that the PO could mimic voices but that could’ve easily been put somewhere back at the bunker as the act of peeing was what tipped him off mentally. The story would’ve been much better had Forbes-Chalmers been what they originally thought, an illusion created by Antarctic mirages. The only saving grace this book had after that was how emotional the end was as it did almost bring me to tears. The pleading and desperation to save Paul hurt to read as you knew it was voices falling on deaf ears. The bargaining felt too real and was really well done which is why the whole Forbes-Chalmers bit pisses me off to no end. This would’ve gladly been a 5 star book but it’s been reduced to me as a 3 just because I enjoyed everything around that one plot point so much but my god was that one of the stupidest things I’ve read. He doesn’t ever show up again either. All of that shit aside. This was a really engaging book with a more often than not well written plot with great characters and great twists thrown in at the perfect times. Definitely glad I stumbled across it in a random bookshop in a random town I was visiting.

[Stephen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Thomas Keneally had a good ten years (at least) based on my reading so far of his back-catalogue. This run included his problematic-in-hindsight but laudably meditative 'The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith' (1972), compellingly oppressive 'Gossip in the Forest' (1975), this Antarctic jaunt (1978), glorious 'Confederates' (1979) and continued with one of the the best-selling Booker-winners of the twentieth-century, 'Schindler's Ark' (1982 - likely based on the cover notes to my 1997 edition of the present book, but as Wikipedia would say, 'citation needed'). And these are just the minority of the books in this decade by this prolific author.

Even in this selection, Keneally's breadth can be seen, which while tending to historical fiction, covers a wide range of periods and genres. So imagined Aboriginal testimony sits alongside the German Nazi Holocaust, First World War detente, American Civil War life on the line, and this 1900s Antarctic murder mystery. All of them have proven enjoyable, taken me somewhere new, and educated, based on some fact-finding prompted by what remains of course fiction.

'Victim of the Aurora' was perhaps less revelatory, and the quirky factual nuggets felt crowbarred in at points (cf. Pangaea and evolutionary biology). Even so, it was a good romp, tinged with sadness. The LGBT themes were unexpected (but then this is Keneally who keeps it fresh!), and I thought well-handled. The generational perspective, and reassessment (as well as ideas on false memory) could have been brought to the fore more strongly. Besides the question of whodunnit, many of the threads were less tightly woven into a whole than Keneally achieves elsewhere. But still, what a decade - and I'm glad to still have so many more novels from his pen still to encounter

[Sandy Sexton · Rating 3 out of 5]

Leaving aside any plot summary, the religious parallels in this novel are strong. We have the all knowing trinity, made up of Sir Eugene Stewart, the leader of the expedition to Antarctica, Anthony Piers, the artist, and Alec Dryden, the man in charge of the scientific staff. They are the only ones aware that the death of the accompanying journalist was murder, and agree to let the rest of the crew believe it was an accident while they investigate
When the journal, revealing the sins of those on the expedition, is discovered, the trinity is now aware of the wrong doings of everyone. Crew members feel the need to confess and explain their misdeeds and seem to find absolution.
Reading the text as an exploration of the power and purpose of religion may have spoiled some of the mystery for me, but I did enjoy the descriptions of the landscape and the lifestyle of the explorers, which seemed very realistic.

[Jay · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love books that take me to Antarctica! I love books that are aware of the culture of the past and how it has changed to become the present. I love books that present a mystery mixed in with a lot of other events going on. There was so much I enjoyed I this book, even if the pace was a bit leisurely and the ending felt a little abrupt.

Our main character leaves us with so much to think about. Should he have behaved differently? Would he have behaved differently in a different time? I’d like a little more of what he thinks about his decision, but that silence is also part of the point.

[Les Wilson · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a very interesting book, that reads just like a biography.

[Mikee · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a good read, well-written, and fairly accurate in its depictions of the Southern Continent. The details of the plot, however, are a bit weak. Good entertainment, though.

[Jack Heath]

Synopsis: an ill-fated expedition tries for the South Pole - Sir Eugene Stewart and company. Later we learn of bitter cold, hunger and murder.

[David Becker · Rating 3 out of 5]

A fine bit of adventure from the turn of the century, but not among the author’s considerable best.

[Susanne · Rating 4 out of 5]

4/6 points, description of arctic landscape drawing you in, and interesting murder mystery

[Otis McKenzie · Rating 3 out of 5]

bunch of guys hallucinate in Antarctica. Kelly Tarlton magic piano - laboratory vibes.

[Anna · Rating 4 out of 5]

'Victim of the Aurora' is a fascinating novel set during an expedition to the South Pole, but not actually about the expedition itself as such. The events chronicled by the narrator, Anthony Piers, demonstrate the undercurrents beneath the usual accounts of bravery and hardiness in such extreme circumstances. The plot unfolds gradually but inexorably, involving from the very beginning. Anthony is an interesting narrator, who regularly acknowledges his hindsight and second-guesses himself. The other men on the expedition gradually become more than heroic cyphers.

The central theme of this novel, to my mind, is that of internal as opposed to external threat. Those in the expedition expect to find in the Antarctic the simplicity of everything external trying to freeze them, coupled with total assurance within both the buildings and the people of the expedition. As the plot proceeds, the narrator and others realise that this is not the case and that the problems and conflicts of 'civilised' life cannot be wholly left behind. Instead, they simmer beneath the surface of expedition life. I thought the novel conveyed the hypocrisy, self-consciousness, emotional repression, and class snobbery of Edwardian gentlemen very effectively.

Without giving anything away and thus spoiling some of the reading experience, I can say that I was impressed with the creepiness of various points in the story. Notably, all that took place relating to Forbes-Chalmers. The sense of claustrophobic mystery was well judged. This is not a horror novel, but at points it is deeply unsettling. That said, it is also just plain enjoyable. I can't help being fascinated by uninhabited places at the extremes of climate, especially beautiful snowy wastes garlanded by the Northern Lights. 'Victim of the Aurora' provides a fresh and strikingly different perspective upon the behaviour of people (men) in such a place.

[Lara · Rating 4 out of 5]

Despite some difficulty with...well, just the mores of Edwardian society, I really enjoyed this book a lot. Keneally has created an Antarctic expedition that takes place in 1909, based on an amalgamation of the Scott, Shackleton and Mawson expeditions that took place around that time in real life. It's a fairly satisfying murder mystery in that, while I didn't ultimately find the murderer a surprise, Keneally did manage to surprise me with the motive and the final outcome, and the red herrings are actually...really interesting.

But what Keneally does exceptionally well here is to conjur up the claustrophobic atmosphere of an Antarctic winter--the cold, the dark, and the horror of being trapped in such a place with a murderer, especially when the murderer must, most likely, be a member of your own small expedition. And when you find out who it is, what do you do about it? It's beautifully done, and the ending is...so sad and shocking. I had a hard time putting this down.

Then again, that might just be because (as you might have noticed) I have a tiny obsession with the heroic age of Antarctic exploration, and this novel just fit right in with that.

In any case, I'll probably read this again one day--it seems like one of those that is even better the second time through, when you know what you're looking for. And it definitely makes me want to give some of Keneally's other books a try.

[Sheska · Rating 2 out of 5]

Written by the author of the Schindler's Ark, on which Spielberg based his 1993 film, this is Keneally’s second novel set in the Antarctic, The Survivor being his first. It’s a murder mystery as told by a member of a fictional expedition, which was closely based on the Scott’s Terra Nova expedition. When I say closely based, I mean there were whole passages that felt almost word for word lifted from the contemporary accounts, and Cherry-Garrard’s book in particular. This made it for an uncomfortable read; that being said it is a reasonably well-told, though a tad contrived, story. My discomfort was also fuelled by the author’s odd preoccupation with homosexuality and his decision to base some of his characters on the recognisable members of Scott’s expedition. I couldn’t help but think of Philip Roth and a theme that he explored in a number of his books, namely what responsibility, if any, does an author have to the readership when they exploit real-life people for their craft and ascribe to them somewhat less than favourable attributes. Made me question the way I hyperinflated the character of the real explorers and how it made me so irrationally protective of them. An interesting exercise, which, perhaps, I would’ve enjoyed more had it not followed in the footsteps of The Worst Journey, which to this day remains one of my favourite books.

[Krysten · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wish this book were twice as long as it is. Keneally slows down the action at somewhat maddening points. I liked the perspective of the aged-former-polar-explorer quite a lot and wished there were more details about his post-Antarctica life.

I very much appreciated that Keneally pretty much skipped the journey to Antarctica, which would have taken ages by ship and would have been recorded in painstaking detail by a writer from the Heroic Age of Antarctic exploration (I am looking at you, Scott, Shackleton, et al.) and is usually remarked upon at length even in contemporary Antarctic literature. These people should take a cue from Thomas Keneally. Some details are just not interesting.

Were this book set anywhere but Antarctica, I would never have given it a second glance. Old-fashioned murder mystery? Not my jam. I liked it, though, and I loved the cynical perspective of the narrator who had come of age in the early 1900s and lived for many decades after that, in his age able to see the innocence and prejudice of the Edwardian period.

[Laura · Rating 3 out of 5]

Just arrived from Australia through BM.

This is the story of the new British South Polar expedition in 1910 when Captain Eugene Stewart is challenged to find the murder among his crew of Victor Henneker, an expedition journalist.

The book is very well written and describes the rigors and loneliness of the Antarctic wastes.

Among the narrative, two interesting books are mentioned by the author, such as: The Sea Wolf by Jack London and Trilby by George du Maurier.

Now I must read some book by Ernest Shackleton in order to have a better description of the exploration of the Antarctic's continent.

[Anthony Eaton · Rating 4 out of 5]

This novel is one which really impacted on me in the writing of 'Into White Silence' in that it masterfully recreates 'history that never happened'. In thinking about my own fictional antarctic expedition, Keneally's thorough attention to detail, and perfectly honed atmospherics really set a benchmark.

[Jason · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thomas Kenneally is a great author, and he's working with can't-miss material here - Scott's first Antarctic expedition, as told by Apsley-Cherry-Gerard, except that it's fiction, and there's a murder. A favorite!

[Paul · Rating 2 out of 5]

Story about an exhibition to the south pole in the early 1900s. Well written by the guy that wrote Schindler's list, it basically was a murder mystery set in the freezing Antarctic. Never really loved the book for some reason but it was O.K.

[Stefan · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting but depressing read of mystery and exploration.

[TJ · Rating 2 out of 5]

Interesting story. not as capativating as I thought it would be. Not sure how much of it was fictionalized and how much was realy based on other stories.

[Gordon · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wouldn't have gone out of my way to find this book, but stumbled on it without regrets. A mixture of breathtaking icy panorama, ironic social commentary, engrossing mystery and human tragedy.

[Frieda Verbaenen · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was the first book by Thomas Keneally that I ever read and found I couldn't put it down. The suspense of wanting to know what happened kept me up all night.

[Stephen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Polar murder mystery that nipped right along, and had a satisfactory wrap up. Some of the flash forwards to WWI, and the 1960s didn't seem to be necessary, but maybe it gave a needed break.

[Andrea Pierce · Rating 2 out of 5]

Well written and an interesting premise, but I just couldn't get into it.