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For a while there I thought this was going to be a 5⭐️ book. The writing was beautiful and the plot was really interesting. However, by the end, the magical realism took over and was just too much for me. Probably more of a reader issue than a book issue but 3⭐️ none-the-less. My 5th #14booksin14weeks read.

This was a tough read. I started it months ago but had to put it aside as I found the content difficult and a bit distressing. Not the type of book to read during lockdown. So 5 months later, I‘ve managed to finish it. Kind of ironic considering one of the major themes of the book is not acknowledging and seeing what‘s in front of us. I still love Richard Flanagan‘s writing and will read more of his work. This one just wasn‘t for me.

Francie is dying, but her adult children won't let her go, insisting on the most extreme care to keep her alive. Her daughter Anna, a successful architect, flies in from Australia to visit her mother at the hospital in Tasmania, but spends much of her time doomscrolling Instagram for images of the raging wildfires. Parts of Anna are vanishing: first a finger, then a knee, but no one seems to notice. A haunting story of love, loss and mortality.

What a devastatingly gorgeous book! Flanagan faces the end of life, parenting, climate change, mental health, and alienation in this novel. The prose is sometimes fragmented to mirror the characters‘ fragmented attention to what is important in life. I read the hardback edition, and I would hesitate to recommend it on audio. This is a book to read slowly and carefully. It is very dark and heartbreaking, but beautiful.

I read this because as an ICU nurse, I found the premise of an old woman kept alive by machines in the hospital long past what anyone would consider a meaningful life per the family‘s request to be all too familiar. This book had a lot of big ideas on death, destruction of the planet, social media, and what makes a life meaningful, but it just didn‘t come together for me.

Flanagan touches quite a few topics in this story - climate change, disappearing animal species, our distraction by virtual world/social media, while the main thread of the story is a slow and painful dying of 86 years old Francie. The story is narrated by her daughter Annie, who is also facing a slow vanishing … The strongest parts of the novel are captivated prose and interesting thoughts on morality of prolonging life, but unfortunately … 👇

I gave The Narrow Road to the Deep North 5 stars and although this one was well written it just made me feel so sad. The dystopian/climate elements also brought back memories of the bushfires earlier this year. It is definitely a thought provoking and powerful read though.

I didn‘t love this. It has Richard Flanagan‘s wonderful writing, true characters & heart and is an innovative way of making us think about the climate emergency. But the metaphor of Anna losing her limbs in a surreal plot point didn‘t appeal to me & most of the characters were unlikeable. A strong, tightly written book but not for me just at the moment.