托马斯·基尼利是当代澳大利亚小说家，重量级的。由于种种原因，似乎很难对他作出界定，归入我们熟知的某一类作家。
基尼利视野开阔，笔触如天马行空，上下几百年，纵横数千里，从澳大利亚早期的历史沧桑，到当代社会的文明冲突；从远隔重洋的欧美，到哺育他的本乡本土，都展现在他笔下。说他像博伊德（Martin Boyd），擅长撰写域外小说，属于那种具有国际眼光的作家，也未尝不可，因为他的确成功地写过美国的南北战争，写过第二次世界大战的德国，甚至还描述过十五世纪的法国，其中不乏享誉世界的力作。但尽管如此，他的创作总体上却聚焦于本国，以富有澳大利亚气息的农场、丛林和城镇为背景，人物和事件也大都打上了澳大利亚的烙印。因而把他归为本土题材作家也说得过去。但严格地说，他上述两者都不是。
基尼利是一个写作风格多变的作家。他创作过具有现代主义特征的小说，有些作品主题模糊含混，情节琐碎不连贯，时空跳跃飘忽；但是，他的现实主义小说却比谁的都忠于事实，细节的******。他撰写《辛特勒的名单》时，为了反映历史的真实，宁可放弃小说的要素“对话”，仅用直白的“素描”，因为在他看来，“复制”对话容易失真。他的《吉米·布莱克

Chapter One Introduction
Ⅰ. Identity and Modernity
Ⅱ. Identity in Australia
Ⅲ. Clarifications on the Concept of "Identity" and Methodology in the Study
Chapter Two The Making and Unmaking of Thomas Keneally
Ⅰ. A Review of Criticism on Keneally
Ⅱ. Major Disputes and Achievements in Criticism on Keneally
Ⅲ. Australian Identity Anxiety in "the Rise and Fall" of Keneally
Ⅳ. Deficiencies in Criticism on Keneally
Chapter Three The Sense of Place in Australia
Ⅰ. Transported and Transmuted
Ⅱ. Reversed Nature, Dislocation, and Self-Commissioning
Ⅲ. "The Outback", "River Towns" and a New Nation
Ⅳ. Keneally the Mapper: Keneally's Settings and Australian National Identity
Chapter Four "The Past Is A Foreign Country"
Ⅰ. The Criminal Past in Present: Keneally's Portrayal of Colonial Society
Ⅱ. The Sense of Guilt. Inherited and Imagined
Ⅲ. Keneally's View of History and Historical Writing
Chapter Five "Imagined Enemies": Aborigines and White Identity
Ⅰ. Keneally's Aboriginal Characters
Ⅱ. Identity and Stigmatization Transferred
Ⅲ. The Stranger in Cultural Clashes: A Postcolonial Dilemma
Ⅳ. Contextualizing Aborigine-White Relations:The Need for Enemies at a Time of Identity Anxiety
Chapter Six Thomas Keneallys Contribution to the Literary Representation of Australian Identity
Bibliography
A Thomas Keneally Chronology
Index