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Wanting

By: Richard Flanagan
Narrated by: Humphrey Bower
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About this listen

The new novel from the internationally acclaimed, best-selling writer Richard Flanagan.

A young Aboriginal girl, Mathinna, is adopted by the most celebrated explorer of the age, Sir John Franklin, and his wife, Lady Jane, to show that the savage can be civilized. When Sir John disappears while looking for the fabled Northwest Passage, Lady Jane turns to the great novelist Charles Dickens for help.

Inspired by historical events, Wanting is a haunting meditation about love, loss, and the way life is finally determined never by reason, but only ever by wanting.

©2009 Richard Flanagan (P)2009 Bolinda Publishing Fiction Historical Fiction Literary Fiction

Editorial reviews

Richard Flanagan's Wanting examines the nature and power of desire through interwoven historical stories about Charles Dickens and his connection to his work, and the adoption of an aboriginal girl, Mathinna, by Lady Jane Franklin. Actor Humphrey Bower's deliberate contemplative performance of this sweeping, ambitious ode to desire will compel fans to keep listening. With the brutality and ignorance of colonialism in Tasmania, set against the backdrop of Dickens' England, the dismal and the beautiful are in stark contrast at once in this important work of the Australian canon.

Critic Reviews

"The interlaced stories focus on conquering the yearning that exists both in the Aboriginals and the noble English gentlemen, and though Flanagan has a tendency to hammer home his ideas, his prose is strong and precise, and the depiction of desire's effects is sublime." ( Publishers Weekly)

What listeners say about Wanting

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Profile Image for Anonymous User

profound

cannot find words to describe how deeply moved but sad it was to experience

5 stars also for the narrator

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Profile Image for JaneyMac

A great read!

An interesting, educational and heartbreaking account of white settlement in Tasmania through the eyes of various characters.

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Profile Image for Amanda cronin

Odd mash of Charles Dickens and Tasmanian History

Odd book - I love some of this authors work - The Sound Of One Hand Clapping I’ve read multiple times.
This though - not much happened. The characters felt flat.
I’ve read other books about Mathinna which were more moving.
Just a bit dull really

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In the spirit of reconciliation, Audible acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of country throughout Australia and their connections to land, sea and community. We pay our respect to their elders past and present and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples today.