'The Narrow Road to the Deep North' ,written about war, death, love and evolving as a man from a
war hero, by Richard Flanagan bags the prestigious Man-Booker Prize for 2014.
In the grim conditions of a Japanese POW camp on the
Thai-Burma death railway, Australian surgeon Dorrigo Evans is haunted by his
past indiscretions. As he uses all effort to protect men under his command from
starvation, from cholera and a grim life, he receives a letter that will change
his life forever.
Named
after a famous Japanese book by the haiku poet Basho, The Narrow Road to the Deep North
is described by the 2014 judges as ‘a harrowing account of the cost of war to
all who are caught up in it’. Questioning the meaning of heroism, the book
explores what motivates acts of extreme cruelty and shows that perpetrators may
be as much victims as those they abuse. Flanagan’s father, who died the day he
finished The Narrow Road to the Deep North, was a survivor of the Burma Death
Railway.
A C
Grayling, the philosopher and Chairman, commented that ‘the two great themes
from the origin of literature are love and war: this is a magnificent novel of
love and war. Written in prose of extraordinary elegance and force, it bridges
East and West, past and present, with a story of guilt and heroism.
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