Dorrigo sadly observes as the bodies of his fellow POWs break down and disintegrate with "eyes that already seemed to be little more than black-shadowed sockets waiting for worms". During the construction of the railroad, he is reluctantly bestowed the leadership over his fellow prisoners and fights a losing battle to protect his charges against disease, malnutrition and the violence of their captors. One out of every three workers engaged on the Burma Death Railroad died during its construction. His regiment is captured during the Battle of Java and is sent to labour on the notorious Burma Death Railway, intended to provide the necessary supplies for an invasion of India. And all the time the wave had them in its power and would take them where it would, and there was nothing that the glistening chain of fish could do to change their fate." Īfter the end of the affair, he joins the Australian Imperial Force. In a metaphor for the novel's theme of fatalism, Amy observes while swimming a group of fish trying "to escape the breaking wave’s hold. Despite the fact that she is married to his uncle, Dorrigo felt the affair was justified because "the war pressed, the war deranged, the war undid, the war excused". Dorrigo meets Amy by chance in an Adelaide bookstore and he finds that "her body was a poem beyond memorising". He knows that his colleagues consider him a reckless and dangerous surgeon, and he has habitually cheated on his faithful and adoring wife, though his public reputation has been undented by the air of scandal that trails him in his private life.įlashbacks describe Dorrigo’s early life in rural Tasmania, and his love affair with Amy Mulvaney, the young wife of his uncle and the love of his life. The title is taken from the 17th century epic Oku no Hosomichi, the travel diary and magnum opus of Japanese poet Matsuo Bashō.ĭorrigo Evans has found fame and public recognition as a war veteran in old age, but inwardly he is plagued by his own shortcomings and considers his numerous accolades to be a “failure of perception on the part of others”. Decades later, he finds his growing celebrity at odds with his feelings of failure and guilt. The novel tells the story of an Australian doctor haunted by memories of a love affair with his uncle's wife and of his subsequent experiences as a Far East prisoner of war during the construction of the Burma Railway. The Narrow Road to the Deep North is the sixth novel by Richard Flanagan, and was the winner of the 2014 Booker Prize. Novel by Australian author Richard Flanagan The Narrow Road to the Deep North
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