This book was the winner of the Man Booker Prize 22014. Forever after, there were for them only two sorts of men: the men who were on the Line, and the rest of humanity, who were not. In the despair of a Japanese POW camp on the Burma Death Railway, 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. Hailed as a masterpiece, Richard ...
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This book was the winner of the Man Booker Prize 22014. Forever after, there were for them only two sorts of men: the men who were on the Line, and the rest of humanity, who were not. In the despair of a Japanese POW camp on the Burma Death Railway, 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. Hailed as a masterpiece, Richard Flanagan's epic novel tells the unforgettable story of one man's reckoning with the truth.
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Seller's Description:
Very good in very good dust jacket. Very good condition, light amount of shelfwear, pages clean and bright. 464 p. Audience: General/trade. This book was the Winner of the Man Booker Prize 2014. Forever after, there were for them only two sorts of men: the men who were on the Line, and the rest of humanity, who were not. In the despair of a Japanese Pow camp on the Burma Death Railway, 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. Hailed as a masterpiece, Richard Flanagan's epic novel tells the unforgettable story of one man's reckoning with the truth. **If you have any queries about this book, please do not hesitate to contact us at hello@ravenbooks. ie**
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1st edn 8th printing. 8vo. Original silver lettered red cloth (Fine), dustwrapper (Fine in protective cover, not price clipped). Pp. 448 (previous owner's neat inscription on front endpaper).
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None. Fine in Fine jacket. A pristine first edition, first impression of Richard Flanagan's Booker Prize winner, presented in an excellent and unclipped dust wrapper. The first British edition, first impression. This work follows an Australian doctor haunted by his experiences as a Prisoner of War during the building of the Burma Railway. Written by Richard Flanagan, an Australian writer best known for this 2014 Booker Prize winner. An excellent first edition of this best-seller. In the publisher's original full cloth binding with an unclipped dust wrapper. Externally lovely. Dust wrapper is in excellent condition. Internally, firmly bound. Pages are bright and clean. Fine.
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None. Fine in Fine jacket. A signed first US edition of Richard Flanagan's Man Booker winning novel 'The Narrow Road to the Deep North', in the original unclipped dustwrapper. The first US edition of this work, published a year after the first UK edition. Signed by the author to the title page. In the original unclipped dustwrapper. Winner of the 2014 Man Booker Prize. 'The Narrow Road to the Deep North' is a novel about Dorrigo Evans, an Australian doctor, who is haunted by the memories of a love affair with his uncle's wife. Written by Richard Flanagan, an Australian author, best known for this work. His other works include 'Death of the River Guide', 'The Sound of One Hand Clapping', and 'First Person'. In the original publisher's quarter cloth binding with paper to the boards, in the original unclipped dustwrapper. Externally, smart. Dustwrapper is smart. Internally, firmly bound. Pages are bright and clean. Signed by the author to the title page. Fine.
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Seller's Description:
None. Fine in Fine jacket. A signed first edition, first impression, of Richard Flanagan's impressive Man Booker Prize winning novel 'The Narrow Road to the Deep North'. The first edition, first impression of this work. Signed by the author to the title page. In the original unclipped dustwrapper. Winner of the 2014 Man Booker Prize. 'The Narrow Road to the Deep North' is a novel about Dorrigo Evans, an Australian doctor, who is haunted by the memories of a love affair with his uncle's wife. Written by Richard Flanagan, an Australian author, best known for this work. His other works include 'Death of the River Guide', 'The Sound of One Hand Clapping', and 'First Person'. In the original publisher's cloth binding, in the original unclipped dustwrapper. Externally, fine, Dustwrapper is fine. Internally, firmly bound. Pages are bright and clean. Signed By the author to the title page. Fine.
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Seller's Description:
None. Fine in Fine jacket. An excellent signed first UK edition of Richard Flanagan's Booker Prize winning novel. This signed first edition of acclaimed Australian author Richard Flanagan's epic war novel 'The Narrow Road To The Deep North' was critically acclaimed upon publication and won the Booker Prize in 2014. The novel tells the story of an Australian doctor and prisoner of war, exploring his life before and after imprisonment during the second world war and his time on the Burma Railway. Richard Flanagan has been celebrated for all his novels, frequently heralded as one of the finest Australian novelists, also working as a writer and director of feature films, co-writing the screenplay for Baz Luhrmann's epic 'Australia'. Booker Prize winner, 2014. First UK edition, in unclipped dustwrapper. Signed by the author to the title page. An incredible epic, Flanagan's 'The Narrow Road To The Deep North' is another masterpiece from one of the greatest English language novelists. In the publisher's original binding with unclipped dustwrapper showing £16.99 price. Externally, in excellent condition. The dustwrapper is in excellent condition. Internally, firmly bound. The pages are bright and clean. Fine.
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Seller's Description:
Dispatched, from the UK, within 48 hours of ordering. This book is in good condition but will show signs of previous ownership. Please expect some creasing to the spine and/or minor damage to the cover. Ripped/damaged jacket. The dust jacket of this book is slightly damaged/ripped, however, this does not affect the internal condition. Aged book. Tanned pages and age spots, however, this will not interfere with reading.
Richard Flanagan's acclaimed novel The Narrow Road to the Deep North" (2013) has many themes and can be read in different ways. The unforgettable part of the book is its story of a unit of about 1000 Australian soldiers held in a Japanese POW camp in the jungles of Thailand in 1943. The Australians had been doomed to work on the Thai-Burma "Death Railway" which Japan was trying desperately to construct to bolster its sagging fortunes in WW II. Thousands of prisoners had been enslaved to build this railroad without modern equipment and in desperate, disease-ridden conditions. They were treated with heavy cruelty and brutality. In Flanagan's novel, the Australians are led by their second in command, a surgeon, Dorrigo Evans, who strives to keep hope alive and to look after his men. Flanagan's novel puts the reader in the midst of the work on the Death Railway with all its barbarity. In addition to describing work on the road, the novel develops well many individual characters, both of the prisoners and of the Japanese. I hadn't studied the building of this railroad before in any depth, and this novel taught me something new in a compelling, visceral way.
Flanagan's novel is of broader scope that the story of the Death Railway. It tells the story of its major character, Dorrigo Evans, from his childhood to his death in old age many years after the War. Raised in a poor family, Evans was a bookish young man who loved Victorian poetry and the Greek and Roman classics. His intellectual ability was recognized immediately and he became a surgeon. But his life had centered on the search for love and sex. There is always a tendency to underestimate both love and sex and not to understand the many ways in which they can be related. In the years before the War, Evans had become engaged to a young rather ordinary woman, Emma. However, he had a torrid affair with another young woman Ada, the wife of Dorrigo's Uncle who owned a run-down hotel and was a good 20 years Ada's senior. Feeling tormented with the affair, Evans had given Ada his heart when he went off to War.
The novel is recounted in a circular way which blends together scenes at different times with different places. There are, however, some large block sections which focus either on the Death Railway or on the relationship between Dorrigo and Ada. The stories thus become melded together. Dorrigo is haunted by Ada when he at length returns to Australia as a war hero to resume his life. He marries Ella in a relationship which lacks fire and sex. Dorrigo finds sex, at any rate, in many adulterous relationships. It is doubtful whether he comes to understand fully Ella and the children. In addition to the story of Dorrigo, Ella, and Ada, much of the latter part of the book addresses the fates of many of the primary characters in the Death Railway portion of the story, both the Australians and the Japanese.
The novel is of average length (about 330 pages) but is as dense to read as the jungles it describes. The lack of quotation marks to set apart dialogue, a common enough devise, slows the book down. The writing is otherwise dense with long passages of rhythmic repetition. Many paragraphs and aphoristic sentences demand lingering over and rereading. Some of the main events in the book are foreshadowed in the introductory sections and only become developed as the novel moves forward. I found I gained a great deal when I went back and reread the early chapters. Flanagan makes use of every detail that might seem out of place or undeveloped on an initial reading. One of the fine details of the book is its reference to a Vivian Leigh film, "Waterloo Bridge" which the Australians perform in a skit in the early days of their confinement as prisoners. I am not familiar with the film but want to see it. The film comes back in a subtle way in a scene late in the novel.
The book is uneven with some weak sections both in the writing and in the story. I found the story of Dorrigo and Ada went on too long, particularly in the early part of the book, relied too much on coincidence, and distracted from the story of the Death Railway. With its occasional windy section, the book still hangs together cohesively. Portions of the book show the strength of the human spirit in facing adversity with a sense of solidarity and shared fate among the prisoners. Other parts of the book, for example, Dorrigo's personal life are bleaker. Dorrigo paraphrases the over-used phrase "it is what it is" (in Dorrigo's words, "The world is. It just is") at many points in the book. Each reader will need to decide where this book is, philosophically or theologically. I found it thoughtful and deeply ambiguous.
I found this book riveting and couldn't put it down even with its flaws. It offers a portrait of the Death Railway and those who built and those who oversaw it. It is a raw, brutal but also thoughtful and inspiring story.