“A happy man has no past” Dorrigo Evans thinks, ”while an unhappy man has nothing else.” The Narrow Road to the Deep North moves like liquid back and forth through his past and present, both of which are dominated by his experience as a prisoner of war on the Thai-Burma Death Railway.

In his youth in Tasmania, he plays Australian Rules football, and he finds something transcendent in its mixture of toughness and grace: ”All his life had been journeying to this point when he had for a moment flown into the sun”.

Read the full review: http://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/books/pow-experience-casts-a-long-shadow-20131213-2zar8.html#ixzz2nX8QmA90