![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() And those chapters are the prose equivalent of haiku, compact things that generally run for no more than four or so pages, many shorter. The title of the novel is the same as haiku master Basho’s epic haibun, and each of the five sections of chapters is proceeded by an epigrammatic haiku that reflects the chapters to come. That this man passed with such poetic timing should perhaps come as no surprise because poetry is one of the foundation stones upon which this fine novel is built. It was the advancing age of his father that finally got it finished his father survived the war (as well as the cholera he had during his internment), passing away at the age of nearly 99 just after Flanagan had told him he had given the manuscript to his publishers. For Flanagan, this was a book he always knew he would write. It was a very personal journey, because his father was one of Weary Dunlop’s POWs on the Thai-Burma Death Railway. It took some twelve years to write, during which time he tried a number of different forms for the story, realising each time he had failed, before he settled on the one that appears in the published novel. Richard Flanagan’s powerful The Narrow Road to the Deep North is in many ways an immense achievement. ![]()
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