Winner of the Man Booker Prize
2014. The story follows the life of
Dorrigo Evans born in rural Tasmania to a poor family. He goes on to become a surgeon. The story is multi-layered, but the main
topic of the book is Dorrigo’s experience as a Japanese prisoner of war in a camp
on the Burma Death Railway. Running
parallel to this is Dorrigo’s affair with his uncle’s young wife, Amy. This affair haunts him throughout his life. At
times a harrowing read, it is beautifully observed and told from different
points of view. I disliked the style of
writing at first as I found it too fragmented dealing with the different
strands of Dorrigo’s life in what seemed a random way. Towards the end of the book the strands come
together in an unexpected way. I liked
the way the stories of the other main characters are tied up, but not too neatly
or in an overly sentimental way. As
always with books about war, it paints a grim picture of the human race and the
cruelty inflicted by mankind. It made me
cry and will be a book that stays with me.
