Flanagan was described by the Washington Post as "one of our greatest living novelists".[3]
"[C]onsidered by many to be the finest Australian novelist of his generation", according to The Economist,[4] the New York Review of Books described Flanagan as "among the most versatile writers in the English language".[5]
He has also worked as a film director and screenwriter.
Flanagan was born with severe hearing loss, which was corrected when he was six years old.[7] He grew up in the remote mining town of Rosebery on Tasmania's western coast.[8][9][10]
Flanagan wrote four non-fiction works before moving to fiction, works that he called "his apprenticeship".[8][9][13] One of these was Codename Iago, an autobiography of Australian con man John Friedrich, which Flanagan ghostwrote in six weeks to make money to write his first novel. Friedrich killed himself in the middle of the book's writing and it was published posthumously. Simon Caterson, writing in The Australian, described it as "one of the least reliable but most fascinating memoirs in the annals of Australian publishing".[14]
Flanagan's first novel, Death of a River Guide (1994), is the tale of Aljaz Cosini, a river guide, who lies drowning, reliving his life and the lives of his family and forebears. It was described by The Times Literary Supplement as "one of the most auspicious debuts in Australian writing".[15]The Sound of One Hand Clapping (1997), tells the story of Slovenian immigrants and was a major bestseller, selling more than 150,000 copies in Australia. Flanagan's first two novels, declared Kirkus Reviews, "rank with the finest fiction out of Australia since the heyday of Patrick White".[16]
First Person (2017),[21] based loosely on his experience early in his writing career ghost-writing the autobiography of John Friedrich. The New Yorker noted "the novel, with its switchbacking recollections and cyclical dialogue, its penetrating scenes of birth and, eventually, death, is enigmatic and mesmerizing"[22] while the New York Review of Books called it a "tour-de-force".[5]
The Living Sea of Waking Dreams (2020) about a woman caring for her dying mother during Australia's Black Summer of climate change induced wildfires, was described in a review for The Sydney Morning Herald as "a revelation and a triumph . . . astonishing".[23]
Robert Dixon's (ed.) Richard Flanagan: Critical Essays (2018) offers different perspectives on Flanagan's writing, while Joyce Carol Oates has written an overview of his novels for the New York Review of Books.[24]
Non-fiction
Flanagan has written on literature, the environment, art and politics for the Australian and international press including Le Monde, The Daily Telegraph (London), Suddeutsche Zeitung, The Monthly, The New York Times, and the New Yorker.[25] Some of his writings have proved controversial. "The Selling-out of Tasmania", published after the death of former premierJim Bacon in 2004, was critical of the Bacon government's relationship with corporate interests in the state. Premier Paul Lennon declared, "Richard Flanagan and his fictions are not welcome in the new Tasmania".[26]
Flanagan's 2007 essay on logging company Gunns, then the biggest hardwood woodchipper in the world, "Gunns. Out of Control" in The Monthly,[27] first published as "Paradise Razed" in The Telegraph (London),[28] inspired Sydney businessman Geoffrey Cousins' high-profile campaign to stop the building of Gunns' two billion dollar Bell Bay Pulp Mill.[29][30] Cousins reprinted 50,000 copies of the essay for letterboxing in the electorates of Australia's environment minister and opposition environment spokesperson.[31][32] Gunns subsequently collapsed with huge debt,[33] its CEO John Gay found guilty of insider trading,[34] and the pulp mill was never built. Flanagan's essay won the 2008 John Curtin Prize for Journalism.[35]
In 2015 he published Notes on an Exodus, on the Syrian refugee crisis, arising out of visiting refugee camps in Lebanon, Greece, and meeting refugees in Serbia. The book also features sketches made by the noted Australian artist Ben Quilty, who travelled with Flanagan to meet the refugees.
His 2021 book Toxic. The Rotting Underbelly of the Tasmanian Salmon Industry has been credited with lifting 'the veil on the Atlantic salmon industry's environmental and social malfeasances' and igniting popular opposition to the industry.[36]
In 2024, his book Question 7, which had also been long listed for the Prix Medicis and shortlisted for the Prix Femina as a novel,[37] won the GBP 50,000 (AUD 97,000) Baillie Gifford prize for Non-Fiction, making him the first author to win both the Booker and Baillie Gifford prizes. However Flanagan declared that he would not accept the prize money until Baillie Gifford shared with the public a plan showing how they will decrease their investment in fossil fuel extraction and increase their investment in renewable energy.[38]
A major television series of The Narrow Road to the Deep North, directed by Justin Kurzel (Snowtown, Macbeth, Nitram) and starring Jacob Elordi (Euphoria, Priscilla, Saltburn)[40] has been acquired by the BBC for screening on BBC One and BBC iPlayer.[41]
Personal life
Flanagan is an ambassador for the Indigenous Literacy Foundation,[42] to which he donated his $40,000 prize money on winning the Australian Prime Minister's Literary Prize in 2014.[43] A painting of Richard Flanagan by artist Geoffrey Dyer won the 2003 Archibald Prize.[44] A rapid on the Franklin River, Flanagan's Surprise, is named after him.[45] He was made an Honorary Citizen of Oxford, Mississippi, the home town of William Faulkner, in 2014.[46] The Tamanian Museum and Art Gallery mounted an exhibition in 2024 of five monumental sculptural pieces by Tasmanian artist, master furniture-maker and wood craftsman, Kevin Perkins, each piece inspired by one of Flanagan's novels.[1]
Flanagan lives in Hobart, Tasmania with his Slovenian-born wife Majda (née Smolej) and has three daughters, Rosie, Jean and Eliza.
His life was the subject of a BAFTA award-winning BBC documentary, Life After Death.[47]
^ abOates, Joyce Carol (27 September 2018). "The Ghostwriter's Mask". Nybooks.com. Retrieved 9 February 2019.
^Dynasties 2: More Remarkable and Influential Australian Families (1 ed.). Books for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. 2006. pp. 31–32. ISBN9780733317675.
^Peter Griffiths and Bruce Baxter,(2010) The Ever-Varying Flood. A History and Guide to the Franklin River. (2nd ed.) Preston, Vic. ISBN0-9586647-1-4 p.57
^Australian, c=AU; o=Government of Western Australia; ou=Department of Culture and the Arts;ou=State Library of Western. "Western Australian Premier's Book Awards - 2008". Pba.slwa.wa.gov.au. Retrieved 9 February 2019.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
