**Shortlisted for the Baillie Gifford Prize 2024**
'A work of non-fiction . . . but it has all the complexity of emotional heft of a great novel . . . Question 7 sets the high-water mark for what the genre [of memoir] can be' Sunday Times
'There’s so much . . . in Flanagan’s beautiful, unclassifiable novel-cum-memoir . . . That it is a masterpiece is without question' Observer
This is a book about the choices we make and the chain reaction that follows . . .
By way of H. G. Wells and Rebecca West’s affair, through 1930s nuclear physics, to Flanagan’s father working as a slave labourer near Hiroshima when the atom bomb is dropped, this daisy chain of events reaches fission when a young man finds himself trapped in a rapid on a wild river, not knowing if he is to live or to die.
Flanagan has created a love song to his island home and his parents and the terrible past that delivered him to that place.
Through a hypnotic melding of dream, history, science, and memory, Question 7 shows how our lives so often arise out of the stories of others and the stories we invent about ourselves.
‘I was fascinated, troubled, and enchanted by this strange and extraordinary work... I can think of nothing else quite like it’ Sarah Perry
‘Mighty in its rage and tenderness: his most momentous book yet’ Laura Cumming
'Spectacular . . . It seems to me a book that will have an overwhelming effect on readers. It certainly did on me' Colm Tóibín
'Question 7 could be Richard Flanagan’s greatest yet' Guardian
‘Fiercely alive and genuinely hard to put down’ Mark Haddon
Richard Flanagan, Winner of the Booker Prize 2014
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Question 7 9781784745677 Hardback
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Question 7
Breathtaking, mesmerising. Measured writing that is a demanding but rewarding read.
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An Inredible read
Richard Flannagan parallels the chain reaction of HG Wells love life with the chemical chain reaction resulting in the destructivness of the atomic bomb. which destroyed thousands upon thousands of lives and allowed his father a Japanese POW to survive. It is a love letter to his family and Tasmani…
Richard Flannagan parallels the chain reaction of HG Wells love life with the chemical chain reaction resulting in the destructivness of the atomic bomb. which destroyed thousands upon thousands of lives and allowed his father a Japanese POW to survive. It is a love letter to his family and Tasmania and an essay on the barbarism of arrogance and ignorance of the upper ruling classes, especially in the West towards too many cultures and ecosystems. It is both spell binding and humbling to read.
- Authors:
- Flanagan, Richard
- Year Published:
- 2024
- Country of Publication:
- United Kingdom
- Publisher:
- Vintage Publishing
- Publication Date:
- 30/05/2024
- Format:
- Hardback
- Number of Pages:
- 288
- ISBN:
- 9781784745677
- Place of Publication:
- London
- Language:
- English
- SKU:
- 9781784745677