> Skip to content
Richard Flanagan
Photo Credit: (C) Joel Saget

Richard Flanagan

Book for an event


Richard Flanagan was born in Tasmania in 1961. His novels Death of a River Guide, The Sound of One Hand Clapping, Gould’s Book of Fish, The Unknown Terrorist, Wanting and The Narrow Road to the Deep North have received numerous honours and are published in 42 countries. He won the Man Booker Prize for The Narrow Road to the Deep North in 2014.

More features

Article
The best book duos to gift for Christmas 2023

Perfect book pairings to give loved ones this holiday season.

Article
Penguin picks: 6 employees share their favourite books of 2023

See what Penguin Random House employees chose as their favourite books of the year.

Article
The 10 bestselling non-fiction books of 2023

Check out our top-selling non-fiction books this year.

Article
An introductory guide to Australian author Richard Flanagan

Want to read books by Richard Flanagan but don’t know where to start? Check out this introduction to the award-winning author and his many amazing works.

Video
Question 7 by Richard Flanagan

Beginning at a love hotel by Japan’s Inland Sea and ending by a river in Tasmania, Question 7 is about the choices we make about love and the chain reaction that follows. https://www.penguin.com.au/books/question-7-9781761343452

Article
Richard Flanagan shares how dreams inspired his new book

We caught up with Richard Flanagan to learn more about his new book, Question 7. Find out why he chose the title and how science is a form of creativity.

Article
Penguin Random House Australia to publish 'Question 7' by Richard Flanagan

Penguin Random House Australia acquires 'Question 7', by Richard Flanagan, Booker Prize-winning author.

Article
Award-winning and shortlisted books of 2022

Discover the best Penguin Random House books of 2022 with this list of award-winning and shortlisted titles this year.

Article
2022 ABIAs shortlist announced

Winners to be announced on Thursday 9 June.

Article
The best books to read for World Environment Day 2022

Celebrate World Environment Day 2022 by picking up one of these fascinating reads about sustainability, the climate crisis, and what we can do to make our planet a better place.

Article
Indie Book Awards 2022 shortlist revealed

We're excited to announce four of our authors have made it to the shortlist.

Article
Indie Book Awards 2022 longlist announced

Congratulations to our five authors who have been longlisted for the awards.

Article
Essie Davis Q&A

The Australian actress on the daunting task of narrating The Living Sea of Waking Dreams audiobook for Booker Prize winning author (and family friend) Richard Flanagan.

Video
Toxic by Richard Flanagan

Is Tasmanian salmon one big lie? In a triumph of marketing, the Tasmanian salmon industry has for decades succeeded in presenting itself as world’s best practice and its product as healthy and clean, grown in environmentally pristine conditions. What could be more appealing than the idea of Atlantic salmon sustainably harvested in some of the world’s purest waters? But what are we eating when we eat Tasmanian salmon? Richard Flanagan’s exposé of the salmon farming industry in Tasmania is chilling. In the way that Rachel Carson took on the pesticide industry in her ground-breaking book Silent Spring, Flanagan tears open an industry that is as secretive as its practices are destructive and its product disturbing. From the burning forests of the Amazon to the petrochemicals you aren’t told about to the endangered species being pushed to extinction you don’t know about; from synthetically pink-dyed flesh to seal bombs . . . If you care about what you eat, if you care about the environment, this is a book you need to read. Toxic is set to become a landmark book of the twenty-first century.

Video
The Living Sea of Waking Dreams by Richard Flanagan

The Living Sea of Waking Dreams is an ember storm of a novel. This is Booker Prize-winning novelist Richard Flanagan at his most moving—and astonishing—best. https://www.penguin.com.au/books/the-living-sea-of-waking-dreams-9781760899943

Article
Richard Flanagan Q&A

The Booker Prize winning author answers our questions about his strangely beautiful story about hope and love and orange-bellied parrots: The Living Sea of Waking Dreams.

Article
New Richard Flanagan novel this October

We’re delighted to announce the publication of Richard Flanagan’s new novel, The Living Sea of Waking Dreams, in October 2020.

Video
'Every single child draws the truth': Ben Quilty and Richard Flanagan on the refugee crisis

When artist Ben Quilty and author Richard Flanagan saw a six-year-old girl draw her life in Syria, they knew they had to do something. The result is the book Home – Drawings by Syrian Children. Flanagan says the book is 'not just about the civil war but about our times ... When you start looking at these pictures in detail, you see the horror, the sadness, the beauty they've lost and what's important to them'

Article
Narrow Road to the Deep North book club notes

The Narrow Road to the Deep North – an inspired reading group selection.

Article
Eyecatchers

Vintage Creative Director Suzanne Dean discusses creating the artwork for First Person.