Shortlisted for the Newcomer of the Year Award at the Galaxy British Book Awards 2008.
Reviewed on Richard & Judy on Wednesday 25th July 2007.
Winner of the Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize for Comic Fiction 2007. An unusual and delightful debut that all lovers of A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian will adore. Normally I find novels written in emails, memos, diary entries and the like, such as this is, irritating but this succeeds on all levels. The different strains of the madcap story, reported in different voices, works a treat and as the characters are developed and the plot unfolds, so your interest is held vice-like. Part political satire, part scientific experiment, part spiritual enlightenment and part love story, it is highly accomplished, lightly amusing, unexpectedly touching and very rewarding. I truly loved it. This title is also available as an Audio book in CD format, read by John Sessions, Samantha Bond, Fenella Woolgar and featuring Andrew Marr.
UK BESTSELLERWhat does it take to make us believe in the impossible?For Dr. Alfred Jones, life is a quiet mixture of civil service at the National Centre for Fisheries Excellence and marriage to Mary—an ambitious, no-nonsense financier. But a strange turn of fate from an unexpected direction forces Jones to upend his existence and spend all of his time in pursuit of another man's ludicrous dream. Can there be salmon in the Yemen? Science says no. But if resources are limitless and the visionary is inspired, maybe salmon fishing in the Yemen isn't impossible. Then again, maybe nothing is.
Paul Torday was our Guest Editor in April 2012 - click here - to see the books that inspired his writing.
Paul Torday was born in 1946 and read English Literature at Pembroke College, Oxford. He spent the next 30 years working in engineering and in industry, after which he scaled back his business responsibilities to fulfil a long-harboured ambition - to write. He burst on to the literary scene in 2006 with his first novel, Salmon Fishing in the Yemen, an immediate bestseller that has been sold in 25 countries. Paul Torday died in 2013.
