Out of the Darkness

Ron Charles of the Washington Post reviews Richard Flanagan’s Wanting.

Lady Jane, now widowed, has dedicated her life to defending her late husband’s reputation from reports that he and his crew failed to discover the Northwest Passage and resorted to cannibalism before expiring in a manner unbecoming to British gentlemen. Determined to raise her husband above such ignoble rumors, Lady Jane enlists the help of the age’s most popular writer, Charles Dickens, who not only defends Franklin’s incorruptible British spirit but goes on to write and star in a sensationally popular play about the expedition!