The Narrow Road to the Deep North

By: Richard Flanagan

Narrated by: Richard Flanagan

A novel of the cruelty of war, and tenuousness of life and the impossibility of love.

August, 1943. In the despair of a Japanese POW camp on the Thai-Burma death railway, Australian surgeon Dorrigo Evans is haunted by his love affair with his uncle's young wife two years earlier.

Struggling to save the men under his command from starvation, from cholera, from beatings, he receives a letter that will change his life forever. This savagely beautiful novel is a story about the many forms of love and death, of war and truth, as one man comes of age, prospers, only to discover all that he has lost.

©2013 Copyright © Richard Flanagan 2013. The moral right of the author has been asserted. (P)2013 Bolinda Publishing Pty Ltd

Critic reviews

"Richard Flanagan is one of the most exciting novelists working anywhere, full stop." ( The Age)

"Flanagan can stop a reader's breath." ( Los Angeles Times)

"Mr Flanagan is a master of sleight of hand, adept at using words to conjure worlds, an indefatigable artist." ( The New York Times)

Insight and tenderness in a dark time in history

If you could sum up The Narrow Road to the Deep North in three words, what would they be?

Stirring, enlightening, tender

What was one of the most memorable moments of The Narrow Road to the Deep North?

There is a moment when the reader learns something the protagonist isn't aware of and it changes the complexion of the whole book.

Who would you have cast as narrator instead of Richard Flanagan?

Anyone else. Sam Neil (kiwi I know) or and australian with natural gravitas. Flanagan wrote the book but I didn't like his narration. The start of the book is read especially slow, I assume to add and artistic solemnity but it annoyed me.

If you were to make a film of this book, what would the tag line be?

A boring man's journey through the bitter trials of love and war.

Any additional comments?

Seriously, i enjoyed this book but (SPOILERS) the protagonist is a serial adulterer, a rock-star surgeon and a leader of men though horrific conditions BUT he is so dull!

What Is Love?

Would you consider the audio edition of The Narrow Road to the Deep North to be better than the print version?

No, not better. Each one has so much to offer the person reading or listening. Both are intimately connected to Richard Flanagan in a remarkable way.

What other book might you compare The Narrow Road to the Deep North to and why?

I have not read a book quite like this one. Richard Flanagan has written so sensitively about human relationships - between people - and within oneself. The way he writes challenges the reader/listener to reflect on their own experiences, even if that person does not recognise what is happening to them as they work through the book.

Which character – as performed by Richard Flanagan – was your favorite?

For a lot of the book I was drawn to Darky Gardiner; and I was shocked to discover his origins. The revealing of his story, was as ironic as it was loving.

In the end, I had the greatest warmth for Amy. Her bewilderment, her illness, her life, mostly unexpressed after the early part of the book, brought out the caring, nurturing part of my soul. I felt good thinking about her.

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

I was so very impressed with the way Dorrigo Evans' story is brought around at the end of the book. Such sensitive and insightful writing.

Any additional comments?

I was deeply moved to hear Richard Flanagan reading his book. Many authors are far from being adequate narrators. RF, using a flat voice, with very little intonation, allowed the characters to reveal themselves without any veiling.

Flanagan gives us bare bleakness, singing of true human turmoil.

The calm, bare honesty of Richard’s voice gives electricity to the incredible feelings he writes about. The words lift themselves to convey the emotions of the characters.

Insert hyperbole here

Would you listen to The Narrow Road to the Deep North again? Why?

Yes. I was obsessed by this book, and counted the minutes until I could resume listening.

What other book might you compare The Narrow Road to the Deep North to and why?

So many, so few. Any book that makes you think. Anything that makes you consider shadows and blurred lines is worthy.

What about Richard Flanagan’s performance did you like?

If it wasn't the author, I would have been less generous with my rating here. Flanagan will never win the prize for narration, however, hearing a remarkable book read to you by its author adds an extra layer to the experience.

If you could rename The Narrow Road to the Deep North, what would you call it?

I wouldn't presume to rename it.

Any additional comments?

This is one of those once in a lifetime reads. Beautiful and lyrical, and prosaic and horrific by turn, it will stay with you for a very long time.

What moves the soul through the experiences of war

What drives us to remember, to forget? What will we think of our lives, what we witnessed, our actions, motives, when our own end comes?

These are the questions I ask having just finished this moving portrait of one man and his path through war and its aftermath .

Richard Flanagan may be difficult to listen to for non Australians, but , as an Australian, I found his narration truly authentic. The slow, thoughtful drawl, colouring in the picture of Dr Evans, pacing his experiences and allowing each thought to sink in deeply, to stir the listener , to make us think.

I read and wept, read and wept.

Lest We Forget.

A deserving winner

Where does The Narrow Road to the Deep North rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

Maybe,off the cuff in my top 100

Who was your favorite character and why?

Dorrigan, he was a hero and a human being with flaws

Have you listened to any of Richard Flanagan’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

Still on my to do list

If you were to make a film of this book, what would the tag line be?

The ripple effect of senseless war,

Any additional comments?

A difficult but very rewarding audiobook but not for the faint hearted.

Terrible narrator... But excellent read!

Australian accent, no talent for reading... It's a pity this excellent book was not read by an accomplished narrator.

Masterful

Dorrigo Evans is an Australian doctor - a surgeon - who finds himself leading a group of 700 prisoners of war working on the Burma Thai Railway during World War Two. Before he goes to war he is involved in a love affair of life changing proportions. But, amazingly, life goes on after the affair and the war, and Dorrigo is for the rest of his life considered a hero by the nation, although he never understands why as he knows himself to be a very flawed character. Indeed, Flanagan shows us this character in full flight, a man of both high restraint and strong passion. This is a book of enormous scope and yet highly focused, with personal stories entwined with historical events, and universal human values muddied by culture and human frailty. Although there are many characters and a number of points of view, Flanagan succeeds in developing a structure which rewards the reader more as the book proceeds. Changes of time, place and character form a complex pattern, but one that makes sense. We are left with questions about the nature of love and just what makes people good or bad, both in the most personal of senses and as a group.

A remarkable work ...

Compelling, chilling, provocative; this is masterful writing. Both complex and accessible, coherent and always interesting; this was impossible to put down. Recommended, and seriously good.

Moving in the extreme.

A well crafted story about the infamous building of the Death Railway. Seen from different perspectives. It explains many things but excuses none. Don't read it if you cannot cope with graphic descriptions of that living hell.