Girish Mahajan (Editor)

The Sound of One Hand Clapping

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Language
  
English

Pages
  
425 pp

Originally published
  
1997

Genre
  
Novel

OCLC
  
37931627

3.8/5
Goodreads

Publication date
  
1997

ISBN
  
0-7329-0896-5

Author
  
Richard Flanagan

Country
  
Australia

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Publisher
  
Pan Macmillan, Australia

Media type
  
Print Hardback & Paperback

Preceded by
  
Death of a River Guide (1994)

Similar
  
Richard Flanagan books, Novels

The sound of one hand clapping


The Sound of One Hand Clapping is a 1997 novel by Australian author Richard Flanagan. The title is adapted from the famous Zen kōan of Hakuin Ekaku. The Sound of One Hand Clapping was Flanagan's second novel.

Contents

Zen koan the sound of one hand clapping


Plot summary

The book focuses the relationship between a woman, Sonja Buloh, and her father Bojan. Bojan is a Slovenian immigrant from the post-World War II period who came to work on the Tasmanian Hydroelectric Schemes, and a drunkard. While working on a remote construction camp in the central highlands in the winter of 1954, when Sonja was just three, Bojan's wife walked into a blizzard never to be seen again and leaving Bojan to raise his daughter. When Sonja returns to visit Tasmania and her father in 1989 as a balanced middle-aged woman, the past begins to intrude, changing both their lives forever.

Awards

  • Victorian Premier's Literary Award, Vance Palmer Prize for Fiction, 1998: winner
  • Miles Franklin Literary Award, 1998: shortlisted
  • Booksellers Choice Award, 1998: winner
  • Reviews

  • "CNN.com" [1]
  • "Reading Matters" [2]
  • "Words and Flavours" [3]
  • Interviews

  • "Many Hands Clapping" - interview by Murray Waldren [4]
  • Film adaptation

    A film adaptation of this novel was released in 1998, directed by Richard Flanagan (who also wrote the screenplay), and featuring Kerry Fox, Kristof Kaczmarek, Rosie Flanagan and Arabella Wain. The film was produced by Rolf de Heer who encouraged Flanagan to direct the film, and broke into tears and "was a mess for four days" when he first read the script. Flanagan first read the phrase "the sound of one hand clapping" in an essay about feminist influence on the early English co-operative movement. The film competed for the Golden Bear at the 48th Berlin International Film Festival.

    References

    The Sound of One Hand Clapping Wikipedia