The Sound of One Hand Clapping

Front Cover
Grove/Atlantic, Inc., May 13, 2014 - Fiction - 432 pages
A sweeping novel of world war, migration, and the search for new beginnings in a new land, The Sound of One Hand Clapping was both critically acclaimed and a bestseller in Australia. Recognized with the Australian Booksellers’ Book of the Year Award and the Vance Palmer Prize for Fiction, it now introduces to an international readership a young Australian who is emerging as one of our most talented new storytellers.

In the winter of 1954, in a construction camp for a hydroelectric dam in the remote Tasmanian highlands, when Sonja Buloh was three years old and her migrant Slovenian father was drunk, her mother Maria walked off into a blizzard, never to return. Thirty-five years later, Sonja returns to Tasmania and a father haunted by memories of the European war and other, more recent horrors. As the shadows of the past begin to intrude ever more forcefully into the present, Sonja’s empty life and her father’s living death are to change forever. The Sound of One Hand Clapping is about the barbarism of an old world left behind, about the harshness of a new country, and the destiny of those in a land beyond hope who seek to redeem themselves through love.
 

Selected pages

Contents

Chapter
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 45
Chapter 46
Chapter 47
Chapter 48
Chapter 49
Chapter 50
Chapter 51
Chapter 52

Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
Chapter 40
Chapter 41
Chapter 42
Chapter 43
Chapter 44
Chapter 53
Chapter 54
Chapter 55
Chapter 56
Chapter 57
Chapter 58
Chapter 59
Chapter 60
Chapter 61
Chapter 62
Chapter 63
Chapter 64
Chapter 65
Chapter 66
Chapter 67
Chapter 68
Chapter 69
Chapter 70
Chapter 71
Chapter 72
Chapter 73
Chapter 74
Chapter 75
Chapter 76
Chapter 77
Chapter 78
Chapter 79
Chapter 80
Chapter 81
Chapter 82
Chapter 83
Chapter 84
Chapter 85
Chapter 86
Copyright

Other editions - View all

The Sound of One Hand Clapping
Richard Flanagan
Limited preview - 2001
The Sound of One Hand Clapping
Richard Flanagan
Snippet view - 1997
Sound Of One Hand Clapping, The
Richard Flanagan
No preview available - 2015
View all »

Common terms and phrases

arms asked baby beautiful began better bloody body Bojan Buloh bottle Chapter child close continued dark door dreams dress drink earth empty everything eyes face falling father fear feel fell felt finally fingers flowers forever front fucken gone growing hand hard head Heaney hear heard held Helvi holding hope Jean Jiri kitchen knew lace laughed leave light live longer looked Maria matter morning mother mouth moved never night once past perhaps picked Picotti pieces pulled pushing rain remained remembered road seemed side slowly smell smiled snow sometimes Sonja sound spoke stood stopped strange suddenly talking tell things thought took trees trying turned voice waiting walked wanted watched wind window wished woman women wondered

About the author (2014)

Richard Flanagan was born in Longford, Tasmania, in 1961. He received a Master of Letters degree from Oxford University. His first novel, Death of a River Guide, won Australia's National Fiction Award. His works include The Sound of One Hand Clapping, The Unknown Terrorist, and four history books. He has received numerous awards including the Commonwealth Writers Prize for Gould's Book of Fish, the 2011 Tasmania Book Prize for Wanting, and the 2014 Man Booker Prize for The Narrow Road to the Deep North. He directed a feature film version of The Sound of One Hand Clapping. He was also shortlisted for the UK Indie Booksellers Award with The Narrow Road to the Deep North. This same title was won the Margaret Scott Prize for best book by a Tasmanian writer 2015. In 2018, The Narrow Road to the Deep North will be made into an international television series. The University of Melbourne has appointed him as the Boisbouvier Founding Chair in Australian Literature at the University of Melbourne, a new professorship to 'advance the teaching, understanding and public appreciation of Australian literature'.

Bibliographic information

TitleThe Sound of One Hand Clapping
AuthorRichard Flanagan
PublisherGrove/Atlantic, Inc., 2014
ISBN0802191975, 9780802191977
Length432 pages
Subjects ›  › 

Fiction / Family Life / General
Fiction / Historical / General
Fiction / Literary
  
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