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Flanagan, Richard : Gould's Book Of Fish: A Novel In Twelve Fish

Picador/Pan MacMillan Australia, Sydney, Australia, 2001

ISBN 0802117112

First Edition / First Printing. Fine in Fine Dust Jacket. 404 pages. The author's third novel. One of Richard Flanagan's finest achievements. The First Hardcover Edition. Precedes and should not be confused with all other subsequent editions, particularly the British and American Editions. Published in a small and limited first print run as a hardcover original only. The production values of the Australian true first are superior in every respect: Apart from being beautifully written, this is a most beautifully produced book with aquamarine cloth boards, marbled endpapers that evoke the sea, and twelve illustrations of the fish that Gould painted. The First Edition is now scarce. Presents Richard Flanagan's "Gould's Book of Fish: A Novel In Twelve Fish". An imaginative re-telling of the life and times of William Gould, the career criminal, and his subsequent and stupendous career as a ground-breaking painter/artist of Australia's marine life, an illustrated taxonomy of the continent's seas. Flanagan himself has called it the first of his "soul histories", culminating in his sixth novel, "The Narrow Road To The Deep North" (2014). "A marvelous historical epic of nineteenth-century Australia, a world of convicts and colonists, thieves and catamites, whose bloody history is recorded in a very unusual taxonomy of fish. It is the kind of book that comes along once in a very great while: A book of breathtaking writing and intellectual inquiry that stands out as one of the best novels of recent years. A tour de force that interrogates the reliability of history and science, and the substance of artistic creation" (Australian Book Review). An absolute "must-have" title for Richard Flanagan collectors. This copy is very prominently, neatly, and beautifully signed in black ink-pen on the half-title page by Richard Flanagan. It is signed directly on the page itself, not on a tipped-in page. This title is a great book. This is one of few such signed copies of the First Hardcover Edition/First Printing (Australian) still available online and despite its imperfection (browning on page edges) is still in especially fine condition: Clean, crisp, and bright, a beauty. Please note: Precedes and should NOT be confused with all other subsequent editions, particularly the British and American Editions. The production values of the Australian true first are superior in every respect. Copies available online have serious flaws and are mostly obtainable all the way from Australia only. This is surely an accessible and lovely alternative. A rare signed copy thus. Winner of the Booker Prize in 2014 for "The Narrow Road To The Deep North". One of the greatest novelists of our time. A fine copy. (SEE ALSO OTHER RICHARD FLANAGAN TITLES IN OUR CATALOG). ISBN 0802117112.

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