Such a brilliant story so well narrated.

Loved every moment. So well narrated that felt I was with Gould in his watery cell.

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Rich imaginative world

This book is an incredible act of creation. An alternative world through the narrative of a man whose relationship to what we regard as reality is unlike any other I have encountered. In this telling, reality is mutable as an act of creation of a future and as an transformation of a past. Whilst I at times marvelled at the use of certain words, the rich vocabulary and the amusing and incisive turns of phrase, this is also a book in which to immerse or closely study.

The audio presentation is fabulous, with well-presented different voices and accents giving greater depth to the author's often wondrous if deliberately somewhat two-dimensional characters. In this, the strength of the audiobook format is superbly served.

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Totally Engaging

This is talented writing and a clever story woven. Enjoyed this book immensely and inspired me to find everything this author his written to read.

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A deeply satisfying marvel

As a reader, the greatest measure of a book is how you feel when you finish reading it. I feel blessed.

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fabulous entertainment

Flanagan never disappoints. weaves fact and fiction and fantasy. magical. master at work loved looking over his shoulder

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A fun, and perhaps true, interpretation of a life.

Loved it until the end. Rather trite and clichéd conclusion to what had been and enjoyable read. Great characters.

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Richard Flanagan’s masterpiece brings us closer to reality than we’ve ever been.

Richard Flanagan’s Gould shares the awe and adoration I have had for Europe’s master painters, writers, philosophers, and above all (for me) composers and musicians. European science, commerce and moral sensibilities seemed obviously the epitome of human civilisation, such that it blinded me to what lay hidden behind the re-written Aboriginal history I learned as an Australian, along with the present day abuses of First Nations people and the contortions about those abuses. But Aboriginal culture seemed a distraction from the discomfort of the European anomaly: the yawning abyss between ourselves (post The Enlightenment no less) and our present environment, to who’s eucalyptus we may incongruously be humming Chopin. But Chopin feels like home. And as we zoom out from ourselves to our country, our planet, our universe, the separation between us becomes no less a nonsensical, knowledge-based veil. Richard’s Gould, through Humphrey Bower’s extraordinary rendering of him, with heart-felt thanks and a long standing ovation, dissolves the devices, the entire veil, with an endearing click, clack, ratta tat tat. A great freedom, love, and connection inevitably ensues.

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Humorous novel

An odd meandering story with laugh out loud moments, well read and inspired by colonial Tasmania.

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