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'Combines a rich voice, highly original, with great invention and engrossing narrative pace... very, very good indeed' Thomas Keneally 'Richard Flanagan's first novel could well become a classic, doing for Tasmania what Gabriel Garcia Marquez did for Colombia or William Faulkner did for Mississippi' Mercury (Tasmania) Death of a River Guide defies superlatives. It is that rare commodity - a wonderful fiction which has pace, depth of feeling, and infinite imaginative possibilities' Scotland on Sunday 'One of the most auspicious debuts in Australian writing' TLS
Thomas Keneally
‘Combines a rich voice, highly original, with great invention and engrossing narrative pace… very, very good indeed’
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First Sentence
As I was born the umbilical cord tangled around my neck and I came into the world both arms flailing, unable to scream and thereby take in the air necessary to begin life outside of the womb, being garrotted by the very thing that had until that time succoured me and given me life. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Back Cover
As I was born the umbilical cord tangled around my neck and I came into the world both arms flailing, unable to scream and thereby take in the air necessary to begin life outside of the womb, being garrotted by the very thing that had until that time succoured me and given me life. Read the first page
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Aljaz Cosini, a Tasmanian river guide, is trapped under water, his body wedged between rocks in the Franklin River, into which he has dived in an effort to save a reckless rafter. "I have entered the realm of the fabulous, of hallucinations," he muses. "There is no way anybody stuck drowning could experience such things," he observes, as many generations of his family history pass through his mind. As this remarkable narrative unfolds, it alternates between Aljaz's dying, first person memories of his family's past and his objective, third person observations about life in contemporary Tasmania. Through Aljaz's memories, the reader learns the sad history of the island, a former penal colony for the most hardened criminals, the site of genocide for the aboriginal natives, a remote colony with little hope and no tolerance for differences.
This is a story of abject hopelessness, the misery of Aljaz's family continuing through the four or five generations we meet during Aljaz's final moments and culminating in Aljaz's own predicament. The author does not even hold out the hope that Aljaz himself will be rescued, choosing to confirm the death in the book's title, before the reader even opens the book. What unites the generations (and keeps the reader going) is the clear and abiding respect for nature we see throughout the book--for the power of the river, for the unique animals of the island, for the stories and myths of the old people--and the belief that there is a unity of man and nature.
The characters one meets in this book are memorable, as they survive the best way they can. The tales of nature and the mystical moments that Aljaz experiences are vivid and uplifting, a fitting contrast to the reality of life. The action on the river is realistic and exciting, and there is a thematic unity which connects the generations of the past with the action in the present. It may be self-defeating, however, to create a novel in which the reader is asked to become personally involved with a main character whose death is announced from the outset. Though that confirms and reinforces the point the author is making about the hopelessness of Aljaz's life, it certainly makes this novel a depressing ride for the reader. Mary Whipple
5 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
having read gould's book of fish , i could not resist read flanagan earlier work , because never before a fiction story teller has aroused my interest as much as mr flanagan stories do
death of river guide is a fascinating book not only because it recounts the last few minutes of the life of a drowning man but also because it leaves you with the impression that it is only when the main character aljaz cosini is dying, after a lifetime of misfortune and empty life , that he finally find solace in those last moments of existence as if it is when life was departing from his body , sanity and clear mind were claiming suddenly the place ,
the book while telling the story of this river guide , leap out back and forth to aljaz family's past, it does not follow any timeline , leaving gap and filling them later
it is also a book about australia digruntled past hence the sadness of it all, from its a "mystical" aboriginal past to the bland modern autralia with its desperate soul searching.
i urge everyone to read it
it is a delight of a book
death of river guide is a fascinating book not only because it recounts the last few minutes of the life of a drowning man but also because it leaves you with the impression that it is only when the main character aljaz cosini is dying, after a lifetime of misfortune and empty life , that he finally find solace in those last moments of existence as if it is when life was departing from his body , sanity and clear mind were claiming suddenly the place ,
the book while telling the story of this river guide , leap out back and forth to aljaz family's past, it does not follow any timeline , leaving gap and filling them later
it is also a book about australia digruntled past hence the sadness of it all, from its a "mystical" aboriginal past to the bland modern autralia with its desperate soul searching.
i urge everyone to read it
it is a delight of a book
10 of 14 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
Told through the narrator's out-of-body, third person perspective and through flashbacks,DEATH OF A RIVER GUIDE'S nonlinear progression requires a reader's close attention to detail. Richard Flanagan's beautiful writing rewards the reader's effort with insight into a man's journey and into the history and natural wonders of Tasmania. Like all archetypal quests, this one provides food for the soul.
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