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

Tasmania

Tasmania is an Australian island and state. It is south of the continent, separated by Bass Strait. The state includes the island of Tasmania—the 26th largest island in the world—and the surrounding islands. The state has a population of 507,626 , of whom almost half reside in the greater Hobart...

n author

Author

An author is broadly defined as "the person who originates or gives existence to anything" and that authorship determines responsibility for what is created. Narrowly defined, an author is the originator of any written work.-Legal significance:...

 Richard Flanagan

Richard Flanagan

Richard Flanagan is a novelist from Tasmania, Australia.-Early life:Flanagan was born in Longford, Tasmania, in 1961, the fifth of six children. He is descended from Irish convicts transported to Van Diemen's Land in the 1840s. His father is a survivor of the Burma Death Railway. One of his three...

. 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)

1. The Pot-bellied Seahorse
2. The Kelpy
3. The Porcupine Fish
4. The Stargazer
5. The Leatherjacket
6. The Serpent Eel
7. The Sawtooth Shark
8. The Striped Cowfish
9. The Crested Weedfish
10. The Freshwater Crayfish
11. The Silver Dory
12. The Weedy Seadragon

Artwork

The novel is unusual in making use of paintings by the real Van Diemonian

Van Diemen's Land

Van Diemen's Land was the original name used by most Europeans for the island of Tasmania, now part of Australia. The Dutch explorer Abel Tasman was the first European to land on the shores of Tasmania...

 convict artist William Buelow Gould

William Buelow Gould

William Buelow Gould was an English and Van Diemonian painter. He was transported to Australia as a convict in 1827, after which he would become one of the most important early artists in the colony, despite never really separating himself from his life of crime.Gould's life in Van Diemen's Land...

 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

State Library of Tasmania

The State Library of Tasmania is the organisation which runs the library system in the state of Tasmania, Australia. The State Library operates as part of the Tasmanian Department of Education, and maintains close ties with Tasmanian schools and senior secondary colleges.The headquarters of the...

. 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.

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, 2002: shortlisted
• Victorian Premier's Literary Award
  Victorian Premier's Literary Award
  The Victorian Premier's Literary Awards were created by the Victorian Governmentwith the aim of raising the profile of contemporary creative writing and Australia's publishing industry....
  
  , The Vance Palmer Prize for Fiction, 2002: winner
• Booksellers Choice Award, 2001: shortlisted

Reviews

• Australian Book Review http://home.vicnet.net.au/~abr/Oct01/brianmatthews.html
• The Christian Science Monitor: "Lowly fish battle Tasmanian devil", Ron Charles, 28 March 2002
• The Daily Telegraph http://www.telegraph.co.uk/arts/main.jhtml?xml=/arts/2002/06/02/bofla05.xml
• The Guardian "In the hands of madmen", 1 June 2002
• The Observer "Con fishing", Robert MacFarlane, 26 May 2002