eBook, 288 pages
english language
Published by Penguin.
An exquisite, genre-defying new book from the Booker Prize–winning author of The Narrow Road to the Deep North, a reckoning with his life and family, and the role of fiction in our times
"Spectacular. . . A book that will have an overwhelming effect on readers.” —Colm Tóibín, author of Long Island
Sometimes I wonder why we keep returning to beginnings—why we seek the single thread we might pull to unravel the tapestry we call our life...
By way of H. G. Wells and Rebecca West’s affair through 1930s nuclear physics to Flanagan's father working as a slave laborer near Hiroshima when the atom bomb is dropped, this daisy chain of events reaches fission when Flanagan as a young man finds himself trapped in a rapid on a wild river not knowing if he is to live or to die.
At once a love song to his island home and …
An exquisite, genre-defying new book from the Booker Prize–winning author of The Narrow Road to the Deep North, a reckoning with his life and family, and the role of fiction in our times
"Spectacular. . . A book that will have an overwhelming effect on readers.” —Colm Tóibín, author of Long Island
Sometimes I wonder why we keep returning to beginnings—why we seek the single thread we might pull to unravel the tapestry we call our life...
By way of H. G. Wells and Rebecca West’s affair through 1930s nuclear physics to Flanagan's father working as a slave laborer near Hiroshima when the atom bomb is dropped, this daisy chain of events reaches fission when Flanagan as a young man finds himself trapped in a rapid on a wild river not knowing if he is to live or to die.
At once a love song to his island home and to his parents, this hypnotic melding of dream, history, place and memory is about how our lives so often arise out of the stories of others and the stories we invent about ourselves.
An exploration of life & death, love & fate, encompassing everything from his family history to HG Wells and the development of the atomic bomb. Damn he can write! The description of his near-death experience is mesmerising. Didn't fully come together for me, but suspect it will benefit from a revisit.
Part memoir and part rumination, in Question 7 Flannagan improbably connects family history, H.G. Wells, colonialism, the bombing of Hiroshima and more. A fascinating read.
I don't know how to classify this book Is it an essay? An autobiography? A history?
Of course, it doesn't really matter. Question 7 is a wonderful exploration of the relationship between seemingly unconnected events. This book is a story of the author, the author's father, the bombing of Hiroshima, the life of HG Wells and the First People of Tasmania. Among other things.
Question 7 forces us to look at actions - such as war crimes - that are clearly evil, calls them evil and then shows us how being evil is both true and overly simplistic. It reveals how the world really works, and then undercuts that reality. I must admit, I'm still reeling.
It is also so incredibly written that I would sometimes re-read paragraphs to make sure I hadn't missed anything.
I'm sure I did.
