num_pages: 334
description: Dr. Alfred Jones is a henpecked, slightly pompous middle-aged scientist at the National Centre for Fisheries Excellence in London when he is approached by a mysterious sheikh about an outlandish plan to introduce the sport of salmon fishing into the Yemen. Dr. Jones refuses, but the project, however scientifically absurd, catches the eye of British politicians, who pressure him to work on it. His diaries of the Yemen Salmon Project, from beginning to glorious, tragic end, form the narrative backbone of this novel; interspersed throughout are government memos, e-mails, letters, and interview transcripts that deftly capture the absurdity of bureaucratic dysfunction.With a wickedly wonderful cast of characters—including a weasel-like spin doctor, a missing soldier and his intrepid fiancée, and Dr. Jones’s own devilish wife—Salmon Fishing in the Yemen is the whimsical story of an unlikely hero who discovers true love, finds himself first a pawn and then a victim of political spin, and learns to believe in the impossible.
language: English
title: Salmon Fishing in the Yemen
titlecomplete: Salmon Fishing in the Yemen
characters: Harriet Chetwode-Talbot, Sheikh Muhammad, Alfred "Fred" Jones
genres: Literature, British Literature, Audiobook, Novels, Adult Fiction, Fiction, Politics, Humor, Contemporary, Romance
ratings_count: 15563
places: Yemen
awards: awardedAt: 1167638400000
name: Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize
category: Comic Fiction, awardedAt: 1167638400000
name: Exclusive Books Boeke Prize
publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt