The Death Railway travel at the River Kwai of the Burma-Thailand Railway north of the City of Kanchanaburi in Central Thailand

Monthly Spotlight: The Narrow Road to the Deep North by Richard Flanagan

A love story unfolds over half a century, in Richard Flanagan’s epic Booker Prize winning-novel

In the despair of a Japanese POW camp on the infamous Thailand-Burma Death Railway during World War Two, surgeon Dorrigo Evans is haunted by his love affair with his uncle’s young wife two years earlier. Struggling to save the men under his command from starvation, from cholera, from beatings, he receives a letter that will change his life forever.

The unforgettable story of one man’s reckoning with the truth, The Narrow Road to the Deep North won the Booker Prize in 2014. Born in Tasmania in 1961, Richard Flanagan is a novelist, historian and film director.

From a reading guide and extract to an exclusive interview with the author, find out more about our August Monthly Spotlight here.

Published August 9, 2024

Read more about The Narrow Road to the Deep North

Richard Flanagan interview: Winning the Booker was ‘a catastrophe of good fortune’

Ten years since he won the Booker, the author reflects on the responsibility he felt when writing The Narrow Road to the Deep North, growing up in a house with almost no books – and his love of translated fiction

The bridge on the river Kwai at sunrise.

Read an extract from The Narrow Road to the Deep North by Richard Flanagan

Richard Flanagan’s 2014 Booker Prize winner explores the many forms of love and death, war and truth, as one man comes of age, prospers, and discovers all that he has lost

Siam-Burma Railway over River Kwai in Kanchanaburi, Thailand.

Reading guide: The Narrow Road to the Deep North by Richard Flanagan

Whether you’re new to The Narrow Road to the Deep North or have read it and would like to explore it more deeply, here is our comprehensive guide

Compilation image of Richard Flanagan books.

Win a bundle of Richard Flanagan novels and a Booker Prize tote bag

Win a bundle of Richard Flanagan books including our August Monthly Spotlight, The Narrow Road to the Deep North, plus a limited-edition Booker Prize tote bag

Winner The Booker Prize 2014

The Narrow Road to the Deep North

By: Richard Flanagan
Published by: Chatto & Windus

A love story unfolds over half a century, as Richard Flanagan’s epic novel tells the unforgettable story of one man’s reckoning with the truth.