Richard Flanagan was born in Tasmania in 1961. His novels Death of a River Guide, The Sound of One Hand Clapping, Gould’s Book of Fish, The Unknown Terrorist, Wanting and The Narrow Road to the Deep North have received numerous honours and are published in 42 countries. He won the Man Booker Prize for The Narrow Road to the Deep North in 2014.
First Person is both comic and frightening. At times I caught a
glimpse of Money-era Martin Amis in Flanagan’s satirical asides on
the Australian publishing industry… And there’s a hint, too, of an
epochal gloom that is redolent of the The Great Gatsby. Yet there
are also passages touched with the virtuosity that shone so
brightly in The Narrow Road that are pure Flanagan… Studded with
sharp, breath-catching observations about the finite nature of
life
*Financial Times*
The novel, with its switch backing recollections and cyclical
dialogue, its penetrating scenes of birth and, eventually, death,
is enigmatic and mesmerizing
*The New Yorker*
Perhaps the most prodigal account of writer’s block ever written…
Despite some sprightly satirical sallies, mostly about publishing,
First Person is a serious treatment of important modern issues
(corporate corruption, exploitation of trust, the impudent
dismissal of truth)
*Sunday Times*
A black comedy about the unreliability of memory and the warped
values of modern publishing... the beauty of First Person is the
way it blossoms into a much richer novel than that outline scenario
suggests.... readable and thought-provoking
*Mail on Sunday*
A dark, occasionally demented book, that is as unsettling as it is
inspired
*Esquire UK*
Electric tension... a smart, slippery novel pitched between
book-world satire, psychological thriller and state-of-Australia
analysis
*Daily Mail*
There’s some wonderful writing about Tasmania and the wild kayaking
exploits which the narrator and Ray enjoyed, at the risk of their
lives, in their youth. There is some very fine descriptive writing
and narrative passages that go with a swing. There’s the sadness of
lives gone wrong or torn apart, the desolation that is the
consequence of family break-up. Yet the strength of the novel rests
in its mordant intelligence, in its recognition that the world
today is essentially Ziggy’s, one of make-believe and denial…
Absorbing
*Scotsman*
Richard Flanagan is an ardent voice
*Irish Times*
The real joy of [First Person] is the intensity of its honesty and
its writing. This is a book of demonic possession, of obsession,
and there’s a zinger of thought, of expression, in every
paragraph.
*The Australian*
Flanagan is scathingly funny about the world of publishing as seen
from the point of view of an unpublished writer, but this is also a
profound and thought-provoking novel that explores the nature of
truth, lies and fiction
*Bookseller*
First Person is a work that crawls under the reader’s skin for its
duration. Harrowing in how it lampoons the publishing industry,
Flanagan unflinchingly reflects on how social predators within such
circles prey on those with a shred of hope or joy until nothing is
left of their original identity
*Hot Press*
The writing and structure are exceptionally good. Richard has
fantastic finesse with the use of language and the enviable ability
of describing a lot in concentrated amounts… It has a reflective
after burn, which I always rate as a skill in its own right, and so
it is definitely one, if tempted to, you ought to give it a go. The
writing is impressive and most definitely unique
*Nudge*
The book is convincing as an exploration of ourselves and the
meaning of identity and truth in a "fake news" world.
*Belfast Telegraph Morning*
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