64 pages 2 hours read

Richard Flanagan

Question 7

Nonfiction | Autobiography / Memoir | Adult | Published in 2023

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Parts 2-3

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Part 2, Chapter 1 Summary

Flanagan describes his father, a quiet man who was both “substance and non-substance” (41). His father was from a small town in Tasmania. He would tell stories about the people there, but not about those that he saw die as POWs in Japan.

Part 2, Chapter 2 Summary

When Flanagan’s father returned from the POW camp, he took a trip all over Tasmania. Flanagan talked to other POWs from Tasmania who described finding peace in the Tasmanian wilderness after their experiences of captivity and forced labor.

Part 2, Chapter 3 Summary

Flanagan’s father grew up poor and felt ashamed about it. As a young man, he asked a shopkeeper in the wealthy city of Launceston for a shirt he had seen in Hobart. The shopkeeper refused his request, describing Hobart as “a convict town” (44).

Related Titles

By Richard Flanagan

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The Narrow Road to the Deep North

Richard Flanagan

The Narrow Road to the Deep North

Richard Flanagan