Quotessence
Home / Books / The Narrow Road to the Deep North

The Narrow Road to the Deep North

Book by Richard Flanagan · 8 quotes · War, Accuracy, Books

Filter quotes by topic

AllWarAccuracyBooksCatharsisChildhoodChurchDeathDeterminationDyingLifeLightLiteratureLossOptimismPastPrisoner Of WarReadingRealisationResignationTruth

The Narrow Road to the Deep North Quotes

“Starvation stalked the Australians. It hid in each man's every act and every thought. Against it they could proffer only their Australian wisdom which was really no more than opinions emptier than their bellies. They tried to hold together with their Australian dryness and their Australian curses, their Australian memories and their Australian mateship. But suddenly Australia meant little against lice and hunger and beri-beri, against thieving and beatings and yet ever more slave labour. Australia was shrinking and shrivelling, a grain of rice was so much bigger now than a continent, and the only things that grew daily larger were the men's battered, drooping slouch hats, which now loomed like sombreros over their emaciated faces and their empty dark eyes, eyes that already seemed to be little more than black-shadowed sockets waiting for worms.”

WarWwiiPrisoner Of War
Book:The Narrow Road to the Deep North
Create image

“Why at the beginning of things is there always light? Dorrigo Evans' earliest memories were of sun flooding a church hall in which he sat with his mother and grandmother. A wooden church hall. Blinding light and him toddling back and forth, in and out of its transcendent welcome, into the arms of women. Women who loved him. Like entering the sea and returning to the beach. Over and over.”

LightChurchChildhoodWelcome
Book:The Narrow Road to the Deep North
Create image