Cover of The Sound of One Hand Clapping

The Sound of One Hand Clapping

First published 1997

About the book

In the winter of 1954, in a construction camp in the remote Tasmanian highlands, when Sonja Buloh was three years old and her father was drinking too much, Sonja’s mother walked into a blizzard never to return. Some thirty-five years later, when Sonja visits Tasmania and her drunkard father, the shadows of the past begin to intrude ever more forcefully into the present – changing forever his living death and her ordered life. The Sound of One Hand Clapping is about the underbelly of Australia, the barbarism of Europe, and the destiny of those in the country beyond hope who seek to redeem themselves through love.

Prizes

  1. 1998 Shortlist

Richard Flanagan, born 1961, Australia.

Subjects

Catalogue record

Author
Flanagan, Richard, 1961–
Statement
The Sound of One Hand Clapping / Richard Flanagan.

Book facts

ISBN
978-0-85798-920-8
4 more ISBNs
  • 978-1-74275-610-3
  • 978-0-8021-3784-5
  • 978-0-330-35292-5
  • 978-0-87113-802-6
Records
Open Library Wikidata

Catalogue data checked 3 October 2026

Miles Franklin Literary Award 1998 shortlist

More by Richard Flanagan

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Same country and decade

Australia · 1990s