Salmon Fishing in the Yemen

by PaulTorday (Author)

• Used

  Paperback
  2008

  $9.80

  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.

• Used

  Paperback
  2007

  $3.25

  Written as a 'report into the circumstances surrounding the decision to introduce salmon into the Yemen', this is a novel that is made up of emails, letters, diary extracts, records of Prime Minister's Question Time, interviews, and chapters from the memoirs of a fantastically weasely Peter Mandelson-type figure. The 'Yes Minister' comparisons are justified (and there is some brilliant, hilarious political and bureaucratic satire here), but at its heart it's the story of a hen-pecked, slightly pompous, middle-aged scientist who finds himself caught up in what seems like an impossible project, and of how this project changes his life. In the process he becomes an unlikely, and rather loveable hero, discovers true love for himself, finds himself both a pawn and then a victim of political spin, leaves his brilliantly horrible wife, and learns to believe in the impossible. And he takes the reader with him in the process' The author (a keen salmon fisherman himself) writes about salmon fishing with atmospheric reverence, deftly captures the hypocrisy of Western governments - who spot the PR angles of sending fish to the Middle East rather than soldiers - conveys the mindless bureaucracy of the civil service, and the government's skillful nurturing of deniability, and portrays a man who rather belatedly comes of age in extraordinary circumstances.

• New

  Paperback
  2007

  $11.53

  An extraordinary, beguiling bestselling tale of fly-fishing and political spinning, of unexpected heroism and late-blooming love...This is the story of Dr Alfred Jones, a fisheries scientist - for whom diary-notable events include the acquisition of a new electric toothbrush and getting his article on caddis fly larvae published in 'Trout and Salmon' - who finds himself reluctantly involved in a project to bring salmon fishing to the Highlands of the Yemen - a project that will change his life, and the course of British political history for ever. With a wickedly wonderful cast of characters - including a visionary Sheikh, a weasely spin doctor, Fred's devilish wife and a few thousand transplanted salmon - SALMON FISHING IN THE YEMEN is a novel about hypocrisy and bureaucracy, dreams and deniability, and the transforming power of faith and love.