Gould's Book of Fish

FROM THE WINNER OF THE MAN BOOKER PRIZE 2014 Once upon a time that was called 1828, before all the living things on the land and the fishes in the sea were destroyed, there was a man named William Buelow Gould, a convict in Van Dieman's Land who fell in love with a black woman and discovered too late that to love is not safe. Silly Billy Gould, invader of Australia, liar, murderer, forger, fantasist, condemned to live in the most brutal penal colony in the British Empire, and there ordered to paint a book of fish. Once upon a time, miraculous things happened....

Review: A seamless masterpiece * Peter Carty, Independent on Sunday *

I urge you to read it * Robert MacFarlane, Observer *

A truly great book that will be read by serious people long after most of the literary fiction of our time is forgotten * Richard Holloway, Sunday Herald *

A masterpiece * John Burnside, The Times *

Hugely original * Alex Clark, The Guardian *

Gould's Book of Fish is a novel about fish the way Ulysses is a novel about the events of a single day * Michiko Kakutani, New York Times *

A strange and amazing book * Alex Linklater, Prospect *

Prizes: Winner of The Commonwealth Writers Prize 2002 and APA Design Awards: Hodder Headline Best Designed Literary Fiction Book 2002 and Commonwealth Writers' Prize 2002 and Victorian Premier's Literary Award - Vance Palmer Prize for Fiction 2002. Short-listed for Miles Franklin Literary Award 2002 and Queensland Premier's Literary Awards: Best Fiction Book 2002.