Wanting - Softcover

Flanagan, Richard

3.54

2,878 ratings by Goodreads

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1554685109 ISBN 13: 9781554685103

Publisher: Harpercollins Canada, 2009

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From the author of the bestsellingGould’s Book of Fish, The Sound of One Hand Clapping and The Unknown Terroristcomes a haunting meditation on love, loss and the way life is finally determined never by reason, but only ever by wanting.

In 19th-century Van Diemen’s Land, a young Aboriginal girl, Mathinna, is adopted by the celebrated explorer Sir John Franklin and his wife, Lady Jane, to show that the savage can be civilized. Lady Jane believes the distance between savagery and civilization is the learned capacity to control wanting. The experiment fails, and Sir John disappears into the blue ice of the Arctic, seeking the Northwest Passage. A decade later, Lady Jane enlists Charles Dickens’ aid to put an end to the scandalous suggestions that Sir John’s expedition ended in cannibalism.

Wanting confirms Richard Flanagan’s growing reputation as one of our most original and powerful novelists.

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Review:

"'This is the best novel I have read this year or expect to read for several more.' Sydney Morning Herald 'This is no literary anaesthetic; Wanting shakes us rudely from our stupors, wakes us up to history. There can be no author more passionate or unfettered than Flanagan.' Sydney Morning Herald 'Wanting is a novel you never want to end. As a reader, I can offer no greater accolade.' Canberra Times 'Powerfully and poetically evocative.' Adelaide Advertiser 'Flanagan is a beautiful writer and Wanting is a beautiful and considered addition to his oeuvre.' The Age"

Book Description:

'Reason is only reason and satisfies only man's reasoning capacity, while wanting is a manifestation of the whole of life' Fyodor Dostoevsky

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