Ben Hunter reviews First Person by Richard Flanagan and The Life to Come by Michelle de Kretser. Read more

Earlier this week The New Yorker produced a short film about Man Booker Prize winner Richard Flanagan, focusing on his ‘writing shack’ on Bruny Island. It’s a beautiful piece, full of vintage musings on life, happiness and the writer’s life. We also get a glimpse into the award-winning author’s writing room: a modest, empty desk with a laptop, a lamp and a couple o... Read more

I can be a little bitter sometimes… Around this time last year I finished Richard Flanagan’s The Narrow Road to the Deep North and immediately shouted to the world “THIS WILL WIN THE MILES FRANKLIN!” I told everyone who would listen, swelling with literary priggishness, waving them away when they offered up other worthy winners. “No” I would say. “You&#... Read more

In this, a year of so many extraordinary gifts from the literary world, how can one work shine so brightly on the Australian landscape? Richard Flanagan’s The Narrow Road to the Deep North finds its voice in haunting, stark prose and the deeply personal story of a POW on the Burma death railway his father was a survivor of. From the opening pages Flanagan surges across generations and lan... Read more