Author:Richard Flanagan

FROM THE WINNER OF THE MAN BOOKER PRIZE 2014
Mathinna, an Aboriginal girl from Van Diemen’s Land, is adopted by nineteenth-century explorer, Sir John Franklin, and his wife, Lady Jane. Franklin is confident that shining the light of reason on Mathinna will lift her out of savagery and desire. But when Franklin dies on an Arctic expedition, Lady Jane writes to Charles Dickens, asking him to defend Franklin’s reputation amid rumours of his crew lapsing into cannibalism.
Dickens responds by staging a play in which he takes the leading role as Franklin, his symbol of reason’s triumph, only to fall in love with an eighteen-year-old actress. As reason gives way to wanting, the frontier between civilisation and barbarity dissolves, and Mathinna, now a teenage prostitute, goes drinking on a fatal night.
Exquisite
—— New YorkerFascinating
—— New York TimesIrresistibly good
—— The TimesDazzling... A captivating tale of cruelty and disappointment
—— Washington PostRichard Flanagan is a master
—— GuardianA beautifully constructed fugue on desire and its denial
—— Times Literary SupplementThis is the best novel I have read this year or expect to read for several more... 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 HeraldA summary does little justice to the complexities and nuances of this dense and fascinating novel... There are moments of great power and lyricism in Wanting, not only in wild Tasmania but also in noisome London... The novel illustrates once again - with terrific brio and aplomb - how fictionalizing history and real people can pay great dividends
—— William Boyd , ScotsmanLight, mercurial... A novel of singular beauty and so vivid a grace it inspires strange elation as well as pity for the lost
—— Irish TimesFlanagan is a beautiful writer and Wanting is a beautiful and considered addition to his oeuvre
—— The AgeA thought-provoking, emotional drama.
—— Sunday PostI’m a massive Dorothy Koomson fan, so I’ll be taking When I Was Invisible on holiday
—— Katie Fforde , Daily Mail, Summer ReadsCancel the excursion to the ancient ruins and get poolside for this compelling story of love and forgiveness.
—— Sainsbury’s MagazineA hard-hitting tale
—— SunGreat heart
—— The HeraldRaw and emotional, this packs a punch
—— FabulousKoomson just gets better and better
—— Woman & HomeTense and emotional with truly empathetic characters
—— My WeeklyA powerful story about friendship and forgiveness, fans of Dorothy Koomson’s novels will enjoy the clever twists and unexpected turns, which keep the reader enthralled
—— CandisA powerful book … it’s always good to be thinking of a book long after you put it down
—— Woman’s Way (Ireland)A beautiful and clever novel
—— The Culture TripA meditative cowboy yarn with a putative ecological message, it could not be more different from Williams’s [Stoner]; it is just as good
—— David Evans, 5 stars , Independent On SundayIt is a sort of Dances with Buffaloes, and one of the most tense, gripping, tragic novels I have ever read
—— Giles Coren , The TimesStoner...is a fine book but his western novel Butcher's Crossing is even better... Visceral, violent and chilling.
—— Barbara Taylor Bradford , Daily MirrorA novel that turns upside down the expectations of the genre—and goes to war with a century of American triumphalism, a century of regeneration through violence, a century of senseless slaughter.
—— John Plotz , Guardian