The Narrow Road to the Deep North
Book description
***WINNER OF THE MAN BOOKER PRIZE 2014***
Forever after, there were for them only two sorts of men: the men who were on the Line, and the rest of humanity, who were not.
In the despair of a Japanese POW camp on the Burma Death Railway, surgeon Dorrigo Evans is…
Why read it?
4 authors picked The Narrow Road to the Deep North as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?
Because my father was a prisoner of war of the Japanese in Burma in World War II, I expected this book to depress me, and I dreaded reading it. But as one of my characters suffered the same fate, I thought I should at least give it a try. And what a pleasant surprise I got.
Yes, it is grim. Yes, it told me things I’d rather not know about what went on in the jungle prison camps. But it also has a sparkling narrative, and it’s romantic, erotic, moving, and exciting. In short, a great surprise and a wonderful,…
From Lesley's list on relationships and sexuality in post-World War II Britain.
I was reluctant to read this novel because it’s partly set in a POW camp during WW2, where Far East Prisoners of War slave on what is often called the Burma Death Railway. My dad was one of these prisoners and, even though I’ve written about it before, the more I know of what he went through, the more disturbed I feel.
However, once I’d given in and began to read, I was utterly gripped. The main character, a surgeon is wonderfully portrayed, flawed yet deeply sympathetic. I was as horrified and disturbed as I feared, but also fascinated, and…
This isn’t just a book, it’s a magic trick—and I’m not sure how Flanagan pulls it off. Writing about the prisoners of war forced by Japanese soldiers to build the Thai-Burma Railway during World War II, he pulls no punches in his depictions of human cruelty, and readers will feel every single one. As he renders misery and starvation in relentless focus, the subject matter is pitch black… and yet, by bridging the story to the present, when the survivors and their captors are trying to live normal lives beneath the weight of their history and their actions, Flanagan turns…
From C.B.'s list on how dark things can get for people.
Australian doctor and soldier Dorrigo Evans has to find a way to survive the last months of World War II in a Japanese POW camp, where he labors, with other dying men, building an impossible railway to Burma. Normally it wouldn’t be worth exploring such intense and prolonged suffering—but the suffering in this novel feels true and terrifying and somehow sacred. It gets balanced out with the light that graces other parts of Dorrigo’s life, and the overall result is a profound reading experience.
From John's list on that take you on extraordinary journeys.
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