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Death of a river guide

Front Cover
25 Reviews
GROVE/ATLANTIC Incorporated, Feb 1, 2002 - Fiction - 336 pages
Death of a River Guide was called "haunting and ambitious" by The New York Times Book Review and "a remarkable achievement" by The Washington Post Book World. It confirms Richard Flanagan's place among the world's most remarkable voices. Aljaz Cosini is leading a group of tourists on a raft tour down Tasmania's wild Franklin River when his greatest fear is realized -- a tourist falls overboard. An ordinary man with many regrets, Aljaz rises to an uncharacteristic heroism, and offers his own life in trade. Trapped under a rapid and drowning, Aljaz is beset with visions both horrible and fabulous. He sees Couta Ho, the beautiful, spirited woman he loved, and witnesses his uncle Reg having his teeth pulled and sold to pay for a ripple-iron house. He sees cities grow from the wild rain forest and a tree burst into flower in midwinter over his grandfather's forest grave. As the entirety of Tasmanian life -- flora and fauna -- sings him home, Aljaz arrives at a world where dreaming reasserts its power over thinking, where his family tree branches into stories of all human families, stories that ground him in the land and reveal the soul history of his country. "A triumphant tour de force, a novel that succeeds brilliantly in its audacious design...." -- Philip Gerard, The Raleigh News & Observer "An enormous, intricate, intimate tapestry not only of the wilderness, but also of a family, an expansive tribal community." -- Michael Pakenham, The Baltimore Sun "Ricard Flanagan's second novel makes good on a truly soaring ambition and flirts with literary greatness." -- Robert Cohen, Chicago Tribune

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Review: Death of a River Guide

User Review  - Tony - Goodreads

Am I to live? Is my life to be saved? Am I finally to be made visible? Other people who nearly die go down a tunnel and see a great light at the end. But all I have seen are people, the whole lot of ... Read full review

Review: Death of a River Guide

User Review  - Poornima - Goodreads

An engrossing read for a book which not only declares the death of its narrator upfront through the title, but also dwells on disturbing aspects of Van Dieman's Land before it became Tasmania. The ... Read full review

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References from web pages

DEATH OF A RIVER GUIDE by Richard Flanagan
"Widely acclaimed, Death of a River Guide is an inspired novel; a lyrical torrent of love and redemption, of rage and pain and laughter tempered by the ...
www.middlemiss.org/ lit/ authors/ flanaganr/ riverguide.html

As I Lay Drowning - New York Times
As I Lay Drowning. E-MAIL · Print; Save. By JENNIFER REESE. Published: April 8, 2001. Death of a River Guide By Richard Flanagan. 326 pp. New York: ...
query.nytimes.com/ gst/ fullpage.html?res=9907EFD6173FF93BA35757C0A9679C8B63

Death of a River Guide / Richard Flanagan / Jill Brown '04
Death of a River Guide is an unusual novel due to its non-linear format and its magical-vision quality. If you are looking for a happy ending, the first few ...
www.stolaf.edu/ orgs/ bookreview/ Death%20of%20a%20River%20Guide%20_%20Richard%20Flanagan%20_%20Jill%20Brown%20'04.html

TRANS Nr. 16: Jaroslav Kušnír (The University of Prešov, Slovakia ...
Richard Flanagan achieved his literary reputation both in Australia and abroad with his first novel Death of a River Guide which depicts a life story of a ...
www.inst.at/ trans/ 16Nr/ 05_6/ kusnir16.htm

I've just finished reading 'Death of a River Guide' by ...
I've just finished reading 'Death of a River Guide' by Richard Flanagan. It was interesting, definitely not the type of book i would purposely borrow from ...
weblog.xanga.com/ sputnik_77/ 650607070/ item.html

Bookreporter.com - DEATH OF A RIVER GUIDE by Richard Flanagan
DEATH OF A RIVER GUIDE by Richard Flanagan tries to make a case for the interrelationship that exists among all people: If this Tasmanian has ties to such a ...
www.bookreporter.com/ reviews/ 0802138632.asp

Crafty Green Poet: Death of a River Guide by Richard Flanagan
Death of a River Guide by Richard Flanagan. Set in the Tasmanian rainforest, this is a story of tourists and the environment, Aboriginal history and family ...
craftygreenpoet.blogspot.com/ 2008/ 01/ death-of-river-guide-by-richard.html

The Austin Chronicle: Books: All Creatures Great and Small: The ...
Aljaz Cosini, the protagonist in Tasmanian writer Richard Flanagan's knockout novel Death of a River Guide, has a name for the tourists who join him on one ...
www.austinchronicle.com/ gyrobase/ Issue/ story?oid=oid%3A81743

Nationalism, Reconciliation, and the Cultural Genealogy of Magic ...
This article offers an attempt to redeem Death of a River Guide, the first novel by Richard Flanagan, from readings which see it mainly as an instance of ...
jcl.sagepub.com/ cgi/ content/ abstract/ 42/ 1/ 117

Harry's barbeque
Excerpt from Richard Flanagan Death of a River Guide (mcphee Gribble, 1995, p. 240). Harry is a Tasmanian who marries a Slovenian woman called Sonja. ...
www.craftvic.asn.au/ turnthesoil/ book/ ttsbbq.html

About the author (2002)

RICHARD FLANAGAN was born in Longford, Tasmania, in 1961. His novels--Death of a River Guide, The Sound of One Hand Clapping and Gould's Book of Fish: A Novel in Twelve Fish (winner of the Commonwealth Writers' Prize for Overall Best Book)--have been published in 26 countries. He also directed the feature film of The Sound of One Hand Clapping and most recently collaborated with director Baz Luhrmann (Moulin Rouge) on the screenplay of Luhrmann's forthcoming epic, Australia.

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