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  • Published: 16 May 2023
  • ISBN: 9781761048111
  • Imprint: Penguin
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 336
  • RRP: $22.99

Death Of A River Guide




‘One of the most auspicious debuts in Australian writing.' Times Literary Supplement

From the winner of the Man Booker Prize. Death of a River Guide, Richard Flanagan’s debut novel, is widely regarded as a classic in Australian literature.

Beneath a waterfall on the Franklin, Aljaz Cosini, river guide, lies drowning. Beset by visions at once horrible and fabulous, he relives not just his own life but that of his family and forebears. In the rainforest waters that rush over him he sees those lives stripped of their surface realities, and finds a world where dreaming reasserts its power over thinking. As the river rises, his visions grow more turbulent, and in the flood of his past Aljaz discovers the soul history of his country.

  • Published: 16 May 2023
  • ISBN: 9781761048111
  • Imprint: Penguin
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 336
  • RRP: $22.99

About the author

Richard Flanagan

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.

Also by Richard Flanagan

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Praise for Death Of A River Guide

‘Makes good on a truly soaring ambition and flirts with literary greatness’

Chicago Tribune

‘A compelling celebration of river and landscape’

The Age

‘It’s a torrent of a book - take the plunge’

The Independent

‘Uplifting and immensely rewarding’

Australian Book Review

‘Haunting and ambitious... realistic and biting’

New York Times Book Review

‘We find ourselves changed after reading this book’

Austin Chronicle

‘Superb... a richly layered narrative... a work of considerable originality. Flanagan’s two novels rank with the finest fiction out of Australia since the heyday of Patrick White’

Kirkus Reviews

‘This first novel combines the narrative ingenuity of Golding’s Pincher Martin with the imaginative detail of De Bernieres’ Captain Corelli’

The Independent

‘Combines a rich voice, highly original, with great invention and engrossing narrative pace. A fine work of fiction., I thought it very, very good indeed’

Thomas Keneally

‘Beautiful and lyrical’

Washington Post Book World