Winner of the Man Booker Prize “Nothing since Cormac McCarthy’s The Road has shaken me like this.” —The Washington Post In The Narrow Road to the Deep North, Richard Flanagan displays the gifts that have made him one of the most acclaimed writers of contemporary fiction. Moving deftly from a Japanese POW camp to present-day Australia, from the experiences of Dorrigo Evans and his fellow prisoners to that of the Japanese guards, this savagely beautiful novel tells a story of 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.

The Narrow Road to the Deep North is a dark book. Where Flanagan was strong was in the description of Dorrigo's suffering at the hands of the Japanese in the building of the Burma-Thailand rail line. This has apparently been a storied construction project during the war, but NUBClub wasn't really familiar with those other narratives, so we basically had what Flanagan told us, and that story was clearly horrible. We found the account of the deprivation and backbreaking labor believable and compelling, and the human dramas of the prisoners was all well-written and powerful. But after that point, we all felt the book lost its way. It's mostly that Dorrigo as a character is never really developed after his return, and the love triangle with Amy and Ella is weak. We just didn't find Flanagan's writing held up at this point -- Dorrigo's suffering from trauma never had the power of the forced labor scenes, and nothing went deep enough or complex enough in his emotions to make the romantic plot gripping. The book ends in an almost cheesy race against a fire and a conclusion that doesn't feel earned. The Narrow Road to the Deep North isn't a bad book at all; in fact, parts of it are very well-written and insightful. But once you stray away from the prisoners' scenes, you're not going to find much of interest in the rest of this book.