Gould's Book of Fish
A convict sentenced to transportation for forgery finds himself marooned in Van Diemen's Land, where his life becomes a meditation on art, identity, and the nature of storytelling told through twelve interwoven narratives.
The novel is a fictionalized account inspired by the life of William Buelow Gould, a real convict artist who was transported to Van Diemen's Land in the 19th century and created a genuine sketchbook of fish that is held in the State Library of Tasmania.
The book uses six different ink colors throughout the text to represent the makeshift materials, such as blood and excrement, that the narrator supposedly used to write his manuscript while imprisoned.
Each of the twelve chapters is named after a specific fish that the protagonist is commissioned to paint, serving as a structural device and a metaphor for the philosophical themes explored in that section of his life.
