Gould's Book of Fish: A Novel in 12 Fish by: Flanagan, Richard
NY, Grove Press, 1st US, 2002, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright dust jacket, 404 pages. Acclaimed novel based on the life of botanic artist William Buelow Gould (1801-53). In this account, Gould is a white convict condemned to the most feared penal colony in the British Empire, Port Arthur, Tasmania, in 1828 and there ordered to paint a book of fish. Gould, invader of Australia, liar, murderer and forger, falls in love with a black woman and discovers too late that to love is not safe. The book's design features colour reproductions of Gould's original art work, and each chapter is printed in a different colour ink. The book has been awarded the 2002 Commonwealth Writers Prize and Australian Literature Society's Gold Medal, and the Australian Publisher's Association 2002 Joyce Thorpe Nicholson Best Designed Book of the Year. Clean copy