Clasici contemporani. PERSOANA ÎNTÂI. Richard Flanagan

Kif Kehlmann is a young writer with no money. A late-night call offers him a way to earn some. The caller, Siegfried Heidl, runs a major firm and faces trial. He stands accused of cheating banks out of $700 million. He offers Kif $10,000 to ghostwrite his memoirs in six weeks.

As they work, Kif fears that Heidl is corrupting him. He starts to doubt who controls the story—and his own future. His failing marriage adds to his fears. Richard Flanagan’s novel explores deceit, identity, and the power of one person over another. It uses flashbacks and recurring dialogue, with scenes of birth and death.

Flanagan grew up in an Irish Catholic family in Tasmania. He was the fifth of six children. His family had settled there in 1849. He left school at sixteen and began work. Later, he studied history at Oxford’s Worcester College as a Rhodes scholar, graduating in 1991. His awards include the 2002 Commonwealth Writers’ Prize for Gould's Book of Fish. He also won the 2014 Man Booker Prize for The Narrow Road to the Deep North.

This translation of First Person belongs to the Clasici contemporani series.