Welcome to Litsy!

Thanks @batsy for recommending this one: I really enjoyed the wild and manic ride down this Tasmanian river. Not quite the adventure story you might expect- the title character is pinned under a rock as the river rushes over him and sees visions of different points of his life and those of his father and ancestors. Questions of identity are key themes, but also how humans relate to nature. 👇

A drowning river guide sees visions, visions that go to the core of the void in his soul. Essentially, Flanagan is looking at historical memory in Tasmania, seen as a "grotesque Gothic horrorland" to other Australians, & the legacy of colonialism, class divisions among white settlers & convict labourers, & of course the systematic destruction of Aboriginal life. Captivating & often moving, it's a fever dream of the history that shapes a person.

Read this one for Tighes Hill Book Club. I love how the past effects the present in this novel and how a whole book can be written about a man slowly drowning. Great one for Tassie lovers.

Man Booker prize winning author Richard Flanagan's first novel, Death of a River Guide tells the story of the lineage and mixed heritage of a white water rafting tour guide in Tasmania. Beautiful and lyrical, the novel weaves its way through two centuries of the sad and brutal history of Tasmania. Epic read.
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