The title of Basho’s text has also been translated as Narrow Road to the Interior. Basho’s text combines haiku poetry and prose to record fleeting moments and journeys. The novel is based on the shared experiences of those in the camps and the author’s father, Arch Flanagan, to whom the book is dedicated, and the text presents opportunities for students to consider the tensions between documenting past events and crafting fiction.īegin with a discussion of the title, introducing the direct reference to the title of Japanese poet Matsuo Basho’s haibun, written in 1694. Alongside this love story, the stories of multiple characters are presented which sensitively document this period of Australia’s history, whilst also examining the nature of memory. The central character, Tasmanian surgeon Dorrigo Evans, remembers his affair with Amy, his uncle’s wife. The Narrow Road To The Deep North poetically records the experiences of Australian prisoners of war in the Japanese labour camps on the Thai-Burma railway. Flanagan’s profound novel ambitiously explores the significance of literature and the ways in which texts, as cultural products, represent ideas as well as past events. The study of Richard Flanagan’s novel, The Narrow Road To The Deep North, first published in 2013, allows students to develop an understanding of language, culture and identity.

Deep road to the narrow north