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.
An unassuming scientist takes an unbelievable adventure in the Middle East in this ';extraordinary' novelthe inspiration for the major motion picture starring Ewan McGregor (The Guardian). Dr. Alfred Jones lives a quiet, predictable life. He works as a civil servant for the National Centre for Fisheries Excellence in London; his wife, Mary, is a determined, no-nonsense financier; he has simple routines and unassuming ambitions. Then he meets Muhammad bin Zaidi bani Tihama, a Yemeni sheikh with money to spend and a fantasticand ludicrousdream of bringing the sport of salmon fishing to his home country. Suddenly, Dr. Jones is swept up in an outrageous plot to attempt the impossible, persuaded by both the sheikh himself and power-hungry members of the British government who want nothing more than to spend the sheikh's considerable wealth. But somewhere amid the bureaucratic spin and Yemeni tall tales, Dr. Jones finds himself thinking bigger, bolder, and more impossibly than he ever has before. Told through letters, emails, interview transcripts, newspaper articles, and personal journal entries, Salmon Fishing in the Yemen is ';a triumph' that both takes aim at institutional absurdity and gives loving support to the ideas of hopes, dreams, and accomplishing the impossible (The Guardian).
