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Gould's Book of Fish: A Novel in 12 Fish
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Gould's Book of Fish: A Novel in 12 Fish Paperback - 2002

by Richard Flanagan

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Published in hardcover to outstanding acclaim on both sides of the Atlantic, and winner of the prestigious Commonwealth Writers Prize, "Gould's Book of Fish" is a marvelously imagined epic of 19th-century Australia--a world of convicts and colonists, thieves and catamites, whose bloody history is recorded in a very unusual taxonomy of fish.

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From the publisher

Winner of the Commonwealth Prize

New York Times Book Review--Notable Fiction 2002

Entertainment Weekly--Best Fiction of 2002

Los Angeles Times Book Review--Best of the Best 2002

Washington Post Book World--Raves 2002

Chicago Tribune--Favorite Books of 2002

Christian Science Monitor--Best Books 2002

Publishers Weekly--Best Books of 2002

The Cleveland Plain Dealer--Year's Best Books

Minneapolis Star Tribune--Standout Books of 2002

Once upon a time, when the earth was still young, before the fish in the sea and all the living things on land began to be destroyed, a man named William Buelow Gould was sentenced to life imprisonment at the most feared penal colony in the British Empire, and there ordered to paint a book of fish. He fell in love with the black mistress of the warder and discovered too late that to love is not safe; he attempted to keep a record of the strange reality he saw in prison, only to realize that history is not written by those who are ruled.

Acclaimed as a masterpiece around the world, Gould's Book of Fish is at once a marvelously imagined epic of nineteenth-century Australia and a contemporary fable, a tale of horror, and a celebration of love, all transformed by a convict painter into pictures of fish.

First line

a normal crush of anxieties waiting to return to a normal confinement, and where no-one ever dreamt what it was like to be a seashore, abnormal things like becoming a fish wouldn't happen to you. I say perhaps, but frankly I am not sure.

Details

  • Title Gould's Book of Fish: A Novel in 12 Fish
  • Author Richard Flanagan
  • Binding Paperback
  • Edition [ Edition: first
  • Pages 416
  • Volumes 1
  • Language ENG
  • Publisher Grove Press, New York
  • Publication date 2002-12-26
  • Illustrated Yes
  • Features Illustrated
  • ISBN 9780802139597 / 0802139590
  • Weight 1 lbs (0.45 kg)
  • Dimensions 8.9 x 5.2 x 1.2 in (22.61 x 13.21 x 3.05 cm)
  • Themes
    • Ethnic Orientation: Australian
  • Category Fiction - Historical
  • Library of Congress Catalogue Number 2001055747
  • Dewey Decimal Code FIC

Media reviews

Citations

  • Booksense '76 Jan/Feb 2003, 01/01/2003, Page 1
  • Entertainment Weekly, 02/07/2003, Page 85
  • New York Times, 02/02/2003, Page 24
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Gould's Book of Fish
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Gould's Book of Fish

by Flanagan, Richard

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9780802139597 / 0802139590
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Gould's Book of Fish

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Gould's Book of Fish

by Flanagan, Richard

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Gould's Book of Fish
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Gould's Book of Fish

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Gould's Book of Fish

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Gould's Book of Fish
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Gould's Book of Fish

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Gould's Book of Fish
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Gould's Book of Fish

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Gould's Book of Fish

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