The Narrow Road to the Deep North (Richard Flanagan, Vintage)

In Tasmania, a new book by Richard Flanagan is a much-anticipated event. He is, after all, a local hero. But he is much more than that, and with each book published his Australian and international reputation grows. The Narrow Road to the Deep North will continue this trajectory. It is a grand book. The story centres on Dorrigo Evans’ life as a surgeon in a prisoner of war camp on the Burma Railway. Dorrigo is a complex man who, for all his shortcomings, provides leadership and comfort to his men. Flanagan’s depictions of the men who are building the railway are fine portraits of Australians, good and bad; these depictions are cleverly balanced later in the book when Flanagan examines the effects of the war on the prison guards. The difference between the European/Australian and the Oriental/Japanese way of thinking is also used to great effect. At the beginning of the war Dorrigo meets a woman in a bookshop in Adelaide before being sent overseas for service. At the end of the war he marries another woman—the one he was expected to marry. The war leaves Dorrigo deeply unhappy; he behaves badly towards his family, while his reputation as a war hero grows. I truly believe anyone with an interest in Australia will enjoy this book. The trick will be getting it into the hands of nonfiction readers who will benefit from the understanding that only fiction can deliver. There is a particularly apt line in this book: ‘A good book … leaves you wanting to reread the book. A great book compels you to reread your soul.’ Will we get some national soul-searching from this book? We should.

Clive Tilsley is the owner and director of Fullers Bookshop

Books+Publishing pre-publication reviews are supported by the Copyright Agency Cultural Fund.

Category: Reviews