Winner of the Man Booker Prize“Nothing since Cormac McCarthy’s The Road has shaken me like this.” —The Washington PostFrom the author of the acclaimed Gould’s Book of Fish, a magisterial novel of love and war that traces the life of one man from World War II to the present. August, 1943: Australian surgeon Dorrigo Evans is haunted by his affair with his uncle’s young wife two years earlier. His … Evans is haunted by his affair with his uncle’s young wife two years earlier. His life, in a brutal Japanese POW camp on the Thai-Burma Death Railway, is a daily struggle to save the men under his command. Until he receives a letter that will change him forever.
A savagely beautiful novel about the many forms of good and evil, of truth and transcendence, as one man comes of age, prospers, only to discover all that he has lost.
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An incredible achievement. Readable and haunting. The best insight into the Japanese psyche during WW2 I’ve ever read. Finally I understand, a little anyway. Amazing.
I did like this book. It is well written, with extensive information about a World War II Japanese Prison Camp in Burma and their effort to build a railroad using captured Australia POWs. It is so graphic and intense that is is difficult to absorb. It is also depressing to consider that human beings can be so cruel and depraved to other human …
I found the most difficult parts of this book–the recounting of human suffering and degradation during World War II–the most compelling because of the hard truths we need to understand about humanity when evil has its way. I found the love story disappointing; it simply did not draw me in as I had hoped it would.
Gripping. Australian doctor serving in Asia in WW11 learns the horrors of war.
One of the most engrossing books I’ve ever read. And one of the most difficult to complete. Beautifully written, thoughtful and perceptive, and a remarkably rich expose.
Through stories related to World War II, Author Richard Flanagan looks at the ironic interplay between human nature and war — how every human being touched by war is changed and …
The emotional power of this masterful novel comes from the existential riddle, the power of love against death and the horror of war; the miracle of love in its inception, the gaze and invisible magnetism of two people drawn together, against the implacable forces of social convention, of marriage and engagement, of distant war and family duty, of …
It took a few chapters to get engaged with the novel but once I was finished I found myself immediately returning to the beginning again. The writing is beautiful and some of the moments are so tragic and haunting that they have stayed with me months later.
Easy to see why a Booker award winner. Well written, great characters and good story.
This is another of those historical fictions detailing some of the atrocities committed by the Japanese Empire during WW2. It is also a love story spanning several decades. A tale of forbidden love and loss.
Depressing book on multiple layers
Provided fantastic, untold story of Asian and New Zealganders
One of the very rare books I gave up before finishing. The conditions of the North Korean prisoners, and the effects on their character, we pretty much devastating.
The other (than Bridge on the River Kwai) part of the Japanese Burma railroad. A tribute to the capacity of human endurance as well as an exploration of what we now refer to as PTSD. Couldn’t put it down.
I couldn’t get into this book for some reason. I really wanted to.
My great uncle was a prisoner of war in the Phillipines, so it was interesting to me about how prisoners were treated as he never spoke much about it to me.
Difficult content and odd writing style. I finished it because I started it. I did not enjoy it
I found this to be one of the most powerful books I have ever read, and I read a lot. I knew next to nothing about the Australian soldiers who were captured by the Japanese during WWII and forced to build a road through the jungle, same setting as Bridge over the River Kwai. The characters were well developed, the plot intriguing and the story …
A great but disturbing novel based on the true story of British Empire soldiers captured by the Japanese and used as slave labor for building the Thailand to Burma railroad.
This book was very powerful, superbly written , and historically relevant. Several passages stopped me in my tracks with their forcefulness and profound observation. I loved it.
It added to my understanding of the Japanese in World War II