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The Sound of One Hand Clapping

Front Cover
30 Reviews
GROVE/ATLANTIC Incorporated, Feb 1, 2001 - Fiction - 432 pages
A sweeping novel of world war, migration, and the search for new beginnings in a new land, The Sound of One Hand Clapping was both critically acclaimed and a best-seller in Australia. It is a virtuoso performance from an Australian who is emerging as one of our most talented new storytellers.

It was 1954, in a construction camp for a hydroelectric dam in the remote Tasmanian highlands, where Bojan Buloh had brought his family to start a new life away from Slovenia, the privations of war, and refugee settlements. One night, Bojan's wife walked off into a blizzard, never to return -- leaving Bojan to drink too much to quiet his ghosts, and to care for his theer-year-old daughter Sonja alone. Thirty-five years later, Sonja returns to Tasmania and a father haunted by memories of the European war and other, more recent horrors. As the shadows of the past begin to intrude ever more forcefully into the present, Sonja's empty life and her father's living death are to change forever. The Sound of One Hand Clapping is about the barbarism of an old world left behind, about the harshness of a new country, and the destiny of those in a land beyond hope who seek to redeem themselves through love.

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The writing is beautiful. - Goodreads
I also found the 'happy ending' rather hollow. - Goodreads
... hIS WRITING IS AMAZING. - Goodreads

Review: The Sound of One Hand Clapping

User Review  - Wendy G - Goodreads

I am a big fan of Richard Flanagan, although in my opinion he has not matched "Gould's Book of Fish," which is brilliant and entirely original. Still, I'm reading his other titles to get a broader ... Read full review

Review: The Sound of One Hand Clapping

User Review  - Jennifer - Goodreads

Beautifully written, but incredibly sad & occasionally oppressive in it's bleakness. Read full review

All 29 reviews »

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No preview available - 1999
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References to this book

From other books

Živeti med kulturami: od avstralskih Slovencev do slovenskih Avstralcev
Živeti med kulturami: od avstralskih Slovencev do slovenskih Avstralcev
Maša Mikola
Limited preview - 2005

From Google Scholar

The Relationship Between Objects and Identity in Occupational ...
Clare Hocking
Wishing for Modernity: Temporality and Desire in Gould's Book of Fish.
Jesse Shipway - 2003 - Australian Literary Studies
Australian Writing, Deep Ecology and Julia Leigh’s The Hunter
TONY HUGHES D’AETH
Europe from Down Under: A Case-Study in the Development of ...
Peter Morgan - 1999 - Journal of European Studies
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References from web pages

Reading matters: 'The Sound of One Hand Clapping' by Richard Flanagan
Prior to this Flanagan had written two other novels: Death of a River Guide, in 1994, and The Sound of One Hand Clapping, in 1997. Like Gould's Book of Fish ...
kimbofo.typepad.com/ readingmatters/ 2008/ 03/ the-sound-of-on.html

THE SOUND OF ONE HAND CLAPPING by Richard Flanagan
"The Sound of One Hand Clapping is about the underbelly of Australia, the barbarism of Europe, and the destiny of those in the country beyond hope who seek ...
www.middlemiss.org/ lit/ authors/ flanaganr/ onehand.html

Forge & Brew: Page Turners: The sound of one hand clapping
“The sound of one hand clapping” is evidently a zen koan that means “the soundless sound”. We interpreted it in the context of this book to mean a ...
forgeandbrew.blogspot.com/ 2006/ 10/ page-turners-sound-of-one-hand-clapping.html

The Sound of One Hand Clapping
''The Sound of One Hand Clapping'' tackles noble material and has genuine heart, but it wilts under the weight of its good intentions. ...
www.nytimes.com/ books/ 00/ 04/ 02/ bib/ 000402.rv135444.html

"Bedeviled in Tasmania" by Bella Stander
Such thoughts are quickly banished by the novels The Sound of One Hand Clapping and English Passengers, both set in Tasmania, though in different centuries. ...
www.bellastander.com/ writer/ devil.htm

Flanagan, Richard : The Sound of One Hand Clapping
Flanagan, Richard The Sound of One Hand Clapping. Genre, Novel (424 pp.) Keywords, Abandonment, Acculturation, Alcoholism, Child Abuse, Childbirth, ...
litmed.med.nyu.edu/ Annotation?action=view& annid=1483

Richard Flanagan interview
Greg King talks with Richard Flanagan, novelist, writer and director of the critically acclaimed new Australian film, The Sound Of One Hand Clapping. ...
home.alphalink.com.au/ ~pjh/ a026fla.htm

CNN.com - Books - Review: 'Sound of One Hand Clapping' tells story ...
"The Sound of One Hand Clapping" is set primarily in a post-World War II construction camp for a hydro-electric dam in Tasmania, Australia; periodically it ...
edition.cnn.com/ 2000/ books/ reviews/ 04/ 13/ one.hand.clapping/ index.html

The Sound of One Hand Clapping - Richard Flanagan - ISBN 9780802137845
A lyrical, award-winning novel from Tasmania about blue-collar Slovenian immigrants in the mid-20th century from Mr. Flanagan, Tasmanian man of letters
www.longitudebooks.com/ find/ p/ 12635/ mcms.html

Richard Flanagan
Richard Flanagan wrote and directed the film version of The Sound of One Hand Clapping, which was released in 1998, and world premiered at the 1998 Berlin ...
www.contemporarywriters.com/ authors/ ?p=auth03C19J465512635268

About the author (2001)

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.

Bibliographic information

QR code for The Sound of One Hand Clapping
TitleThe Sound of One Hand Clapping
AuthorRichard Flanagan
Editionreprint
PublisherGROVE/ATLANTIC Incorporated, 2001
ISBN0802137849, 9780802137845
Length432 pages
Subjects › 

Fiction / General
Fiction / Literary
  
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