Question 7

By way of H. G. Wells and Rebecca West’s affair, through 1930s nuclear physics, to Flanagan’s father working as a slave labourer near Hiroshima, this chain of events culminates in a young man finding himself trapped in a rapid on a wild river, not knowing if he is to live or to die…

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‘The strangest and most beautiful memoir I’ve ever read. Magnificent' – Tim Winton

‘Flanagan’s finest book... A brilliant meditation on the past of one man and the history that coalesced in his existence’ – Guardian

‘Flanagan’s portrayal of his quiet, brave father and his loving, resilient mother is exquisite. His evocation of the texture of life in rural Tas­mania is masterful’ – Daily Telegraph

‘A beautiful, unclassifiable novel-cum-memoir… That it is a masterpiece is without question’ – Observer

‘Sometimes a book is an experience felt almost in the body… A celebration of all life, it is also a reckoning with the 20th century... It is intimate, beautiful, unsparing and profound' – Anna Funder