Wanting (novel)

Wanting is a 2008 novel by Australian author Richard Flanagan.

Wanting

First edition
Author	Richard Flanagan
Language	English
Publisher	Knopf, Australia
Publication date	2008
Publication place	Australia
Media type	Print Hardback & Paperback
Pages	256 pp
ISBN	978-1-74166-655-7
OCLC	270765982
Dewey Decimal	A823.3 22
LC Class	PR9619.3.F525 W36 2008
Preceded by	The Unknown Terrorist (2006)

Plot summary

Wanting cuts between two stories based on real historical figures under the central theme of 'wanting' and is set in both nineteenth century Tasmania and Britain. One tells the tale of an Aboriginal child, Mathinna, adopted by then governor of Van Diemen’s Land, Sir John Franklin and his wife Lady Jane; the other of Charles Dickens’ love affair with Ellen Ternan after one of his daughters dies.^[1]

Reception

Many critics regarded Wanting as one of the best novels of the year.^[2][3][4]

Notes

• Dedication: "For Kevin Perkins".
• Epigraph: "You see, reason, gentlemen, is a fine thing, that is unquestionable, but reason is only reason and satisfies only man's reasoning capacity, while wanting is a manifestation of the whole of life." Fyodor Dostoevsky
• Epigraph: "That which is wanting cannot be numbered." Ecclesiastes

Awards

• 2008 Western Australia Premier's Prize^[5]
• 2009 Queensland Premier's Prize^[5]
• 2009 New Yorker Notable Book of the Year
• 2009 Washington Post Book of the Year
• 2009 London Observer Book of the Year

Interviews

• Jason Steger in "The Age"
• Ramona Kaval on "The Book Show"
• Simon Bevilacqua in "The Mercury"
• Sally Warhaft on "Slow TV"