[2] The book focuses the relationship between a woman, Sonja Buloh, and her father Bojan.

Bojan is a Slovenian immigrant from the post-World War II period who came to work on the Tasmanian Hydroelectric Schemes, and a drunkard.

When Sonja returns to visit Tasmania and her father in 1989 as a balanced middle-aged woman, the past begins to intrude, changing both their lives forever.

[3] A film adaptation of this novel was released in 1998, directed by the author, Richard Flanagan (who also wrote the screenplay), and featuring Kerry Fox, Kristof Kaczmarek, Rosie Flanagan and Arabella Wain.

Flanagan first read the phrase "the sound of one hand clapping" in an essay about feminist influence on the early English co-operative movement.