	Click here for media images		RICHARD FLANAGAN Richard Flanagan was born in Tasmania in 1961, the fifth of six children. He left school at sixteen, later winning a Rhodes Scholarship to Oxford, where he took a Master of Letters degree. The Rhodes Scholar Register records him as moving on to the position of roof painter. He subsequently also worked as a labourer and river guide. He wrote two history books before turning to writing fiction; his novels have been some of the most acclaimed and beloved works of fiction in recent years. His first novel, DEATH OF A RIVER GUIDE (1997), is the tale of Aljaz Cosini, river guide, who lies drowning, reliving his life and the lives of his family and forebears. It was described by THE TIMES LITERARY SUPPLEMENT ‘one of the most auspicious debuts in Australian writing’. His next book, THE SOUND OF ONE HAND CLAPPING (1998), which tells the story of Slovenian immigrants, was a major bestseller, selling more than 150,000 copies in Australia alone. Flanagan’s first two novels, declared Kirkus Reviews, ‘rank with the finest fiction out of Australia since the heyday of Patrick White’. GOULD'S BOOK OF FISH (2001), Flanagan’s third novel, is based on the life of Billy Gould, a convict artist, and tells the tale of his love affair with a young black woman in 1828. The book is printed in six different colours and was hailed around the world as a masterpiece. It went on to win the 2002 Commonwealth Writers’ Prize. Flanagan’s fourth novel was THE UNKNOWN TERRORIST (2006), which THE NEW YORK TIMES called ‘stunning . . . a brilliant meditation upon the post-9/11 world’. Flanagan wrote and directed the film of THE SOUND OF ONE HAND CLAPPING, which was released in 1998. It premiered at the 1998 Berlin Film Festival, where it was nominated for Golden Bear for Best Film. He recently collaborated with Baz Luhrmann on the screenplay of Luhrmann’s new film, AUSTRALIA. Flanagan was described by Michiko Kakutani in THE NEW YORK TIMES as ‘a master of sleight of hand, adept at using words to conjure worlds, an indefatigable artist’, while Britain’s DAILY MAIL called him ‘a funny, filmic and gripping writer . . . a novelist and philosopher for our time’. WANTING seems destined only to enhance Flanagan’s global reputation.

RICHARD FLANAGAN

Richard Flanagan was born in Tasmania in 1961, the fifth of six children. He left school at sixteen, later winning a Rhodes Scholarship to Oxford, where he took a Master of Letters degree. The Rhodes Scholar Register records him as moving on to the position of roof painter. He subsequently also worked as a labourer and river guide. He wrote two history books before turning to writing fiction; his novels have been some of the most acclaimed and beloved works of fiction in recent years.

His first novel, DEATH OF A RIVER GUIDE (1997), is the tale of Aljaz Cosini, river guide, who lies drowning, reliving his life and the lives of his family and forebears. It was described by THE TIMES LITERARY SUPPLEMENT ‘one of the most auspicious debuts in Australian writing’. His next book, THE SOUND OF ONE HAND CLAPPING (1998), which tells the story of Slovenian immigrants, was a major bestseller, selling more than 150,000 copies in Australia alone. Flanagan’s first two novels, declared Kirkus Reviews, ‘rank with the finest fiction out of Australia since the heyday of Patrick White’. GOULD'S BOOK OF FISH (2001), Flanagan’s third novel, is based on the life of Billy Gould, a convict artist, and tells the tale of his love affair with a young black woman in 1828. The book is printed in six different colours and was hailed around the world as a masterpiece. It went on to win the 2002 Commonwealth Writers’ Prize. Flanagan’s fourth novel was THE UNKNOWN TERRORIST (2006), which THE NEW YORK TIMES called ‘stunning . . . a brilliant meditation upon the post-9/11 world’.

Flanagan wrote and directed the film of THE SOUND OF ONE HAND CLAPPING, which was released in 1998. It premiered at the 1998 Berlin Film Festival, where it was nominated for Golden Bear for Best Film. He recently collaborated with Baz Luhrmann on the screenplay of Luhrmann’s new film, AUSTRALIA.

Flanagan was described by Michiko Kakutani in THE NEW YORK TIMES as ‘a master of sleight of hand, adept at using words to conjure worlds, an indefatigable artist’, while Britain’s DAILY MAIL called him ‘a funny, filmic and gripping writer . . . a novelist and philosopher for our time’. WANTING seems destined only to enhance Flanagan’s global reputation.