DEATH OF A RIVER GUIDE

Trapped under a waterfall at the tail end of a white-water rafting run in Tasmania, river guide Aljaz Cosini succumbs to his genetic propensity for visions. His family is a mini-melting pot of multicultural strands -- imported convicts, aboriginals, and fortune-seeking immigrants -- firmly entrenched in the island's history. As the water cascades over him, family tales rush in and out of Cosini's head in a chaotic swirl of cyclical, inevitable birth-love-death patterns, deftly contrasted with the taut narrative of his most recent wilderness adventure. Densely packed, Flanagan's first novel, originally released in his native Australia in 1994, is an intense ride, quirky and dramatic, that brings a far-off land to gritty life. B