IMPAC
Flanagan has scooped the Man Booker for his epic story of Australian POWs enslaved by the Japanese to build the Burma railway during the Second World War. Tasmanian Flanagan’s own father survived the starvation, brutality and disease of “the Line”. Flanagan tells the story through the experiences of a survivor, Dorrigo Evans, a surgeon whose wartime leadership has made him a celebrity in civilian life. From the first sentence, there is a palpable sense of a writer aiming for a greatness that befits his subject. Ultimately, however, Flanagan falls short. And while The Narrow Road must be a favourite, an IMPAC-Booker double would be rather more acclaim than the book deserves.
