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Bettie's Books

A Stuga On the Cusp of the Orust Riviera, tucked away next to a hobbit hole in the woods.

Gould's Book of Fish by Richard Flanagan

Gould's Book of Fish - Richard Flanagan

bookshelves: australia, autumn-2012, colonial-overlords, victorian, historical-fiction, hardback, one-penny-wonder, dodgy-narrator, published-2001, library-in-norway, teh-brillianz, bedside

Read from November 23 to 28, 2012

 

A NOVEL IN TWELVE FISH

Inside dust jacket: 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 aman 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, condemned to live in the most brutal penal colony in the British Empire, and there ordered to paint fish.

Once upon a time, miracles happened...


Opening quote:

My mother is a fish
William Faulkner

australia> van dieman's land> tasmania
hist fic
slaves> convicts
one penny wonder
hardback
library in Norway
pub 2001
autumn 2012
books about books> this book IS the book
magical realism
teh brilliantz
philosophy
Victor Hugo as Buddhist God
art
dodgy narrator
fictionalised biography
roman à clef

Opening:The Pot-Bellied Seahorse

My wonder upon discovering the Book of Fish remains with me yet, luminous as the phosphorescent marbling that seized my eyes that strange morning; glittering as those eerie swirls that coloured my world and enchanted my soul - which there and then began the process of of unravelling my heart and, worst still, my life into the poor, scraggy skein that is this story you are about to read.


Cameo appearances by:

George Keats
John James Audubon

♥♥♥

The ink changes colour with each story and the cover-lining is the turquoise freckled sea.





From wiki: William Buelow Gould (1801 – 11 December 1853) was an English and Van Diemonian (Tasmanian) 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 was the subject of the award winning historical fiction novel Gould's Book of Fish, centring around Gould's production of the Sketchbook of fishes. In April 2011 Gould's original Sketchbook of fishes was recognised as a document of world significance by UNESCO.
























5* Gould's Book of Fish(2001)
3.5* Wanting (2009)