''Gould's Book of Fish: A Novel in Twelve Fish'' is a 2001 novel by

Tasmania Tasmania (; palawa kani: ''Lutruwita'') is an island States and territories of Australia, state of Australia. It is located to the south of the Mainland Australia, Australian mainland, and is separated from it by the Bass Strait. The sta ...

author In legal discourse, an author is the creator of an original work that has been published, whether that work exists in written, graphic, visual, or recorded form. The act of creating such a work is referred to as authorship. Therefore, a sculpt ...

Richard Flanagan Richard Miller Flanagan (born 1961) is an Australian writer, who won the 2014 Man Booker Prize for his novel ''The Narrow Road to the Deep North (novel), The Narrow Road to the Deep North'' and the 2024 Baillie Gifford Prize for ''Question 7'', ...

. ''Gould's Book of Fish'' was Flanagan's third novel.

Plot summary

''Gould's Book of Fish'' is a fictionalised account of the convict William Buelow Gould's life both at Macquarie Harbour and elsewhere during his life in Van Diemen's Land.

Chapter titles (the twelve fish)

Source: # The Pot-bellied Seahorse #The Kelpy # The Porcupine Fish # The Stargazer #The Leatherjacket #The Serpent Eel #The Sawtooth Shark # The Striped Cowfish # The Crested Weedfish # The Freshwater Crayfish # The Silver Dory # The Weedy Seadragon

Artwork

The novel is unusual in that it makes use of paintings by the real Van Diemonian convict artist William Buelow Gould reproduced with permission from William Gould's ''Sketchbook of Fishes'', held by the Allport Library and Museum of Fine Arts, in the State Library of Tasmania. These images of fish are used both as chapter headings and inspiration for characters. Different editions around the world have used different images of Gould's for their cover.

Notes

*Dedication: "For Rosie, Jean and Eliza, swimming in ever widening rings of wonder." *Epigraph: "My mother is a fish." –

William Faulkner William Cuthbert Faulkner (; September 25, 1897 – July 6, 1962) was an American writer. He is best known for William Faulkner bibliography, his novels and short stories set in the fictional Yoknapatawpha County, Mississippi, a stand-in fo ...

Awards

* Commonwealth Writers Prize, South-East Asia and South Pacific Region, Best Book, 2002: winner * Commonwealth Writers Prize, Overall Best Book Award, 2002: winner *

Miles Franklin Literary Award The Miles Franklin Literary Award is an annual literary prize awarded to "a novel which is of the highest literary merit and presents Australian life in any of its phases". The award was set up according to the will of Miles Franklin (1879–195 ...

, 2002: shortlisted * Victorian Premier's Literary Award, The Vance Palmer Prize for Fiction, 2002: winner *Booksellers Choice Award, 2001: shortlisted *Australian Literary Society Gold Medal, 2002

Reviews

* *''The Christian Science Monitor''
"Lowly fish battle Tasmanian devil"
Ron Charles, 28 March 2002 *''The Guardian'
"In the hands of madmen"
Alex Clark 1 June 2002 *''The Daily Telegraph'

Will Cohu, Deep Down Under *''New York Times'

Michiko Kakutani, 'A Reborn Criminal Distils Beauty From a Prison's Abominable Depths' *''The Observer'
"Con fishing"
Robert MacFarlane, 26 May 2002 *''Australian Book Review'

Brian Matthews, 'The Ministry of Fish'

References

{{Victorian Premier's Prize for Fiction 2001 Australian novels Western Tasmania Novels by Richard Flanagan Novels set in Tasmania ALS Gold Medal–winning works Postmodern novels Pan Books books