Sometimes I wonder why we constantly return to the beginnings – why we seek the unique thread that we could pull to unravel the carpet we call "our life"…

From the relationship between H. G. Wells and Rebecca West to the nuclear physics of the 1930s and Flanagan's father, who worked as a slave laborer near Hiroshima when the atomic bomb fell, this chain of events culminates when the author, as a young man, finds himself trapped in the waterfall of a wild river, unsure if he will live or die.

A captivating blend of dream, history, place, and memory, which is a love song to his island and to his parents, and speaks about how our lives often emerge through the stories of others and the stories we invent for ourselves.

• BAILLIE GIFFORD AWARD

• SHORTLISTED FOR PRIX FEMINA ÉTRANGER

• LONGLISTED FOR PRIX MÉDICIS