The Weaver Fish (Robert Edeson, Fremantle Press)

The Weaver Fish is fiendishly clever. It brings together so many threads it’s hard to know where to start. From hurricane-proof hats to a mysterious bird of prey that’s perhaps not what it seems, to a thriller subplot somehow tied to financing Margaret River wineries and illegal Chinese logging on a remote island, it all links together, somehow. Many of the quirky characters have punny, aptronymic names that serve to amuse and confuse in equal measure, as do numerous suggestions peppered throughout the narrative that some (or all) of what is going on may well be an elaborate academic hoax. Everything in this intellectual puzzle of a book is underpinned by brilliantly realised but, we can only presume, entirely made-up science, linguistics, psychiatry, history and geography, complete with extensive endnotes. It’s a novel unlike anything you’ve read before, but will provide hours of brain-food to those who enjoy being challenged by authors such as Umberto Eco, Jorge Luis Borges, Neal Stephenson or David Mitchell. It would certainly make for a discussion-stimulating bookclub read!

Tim Coronel is a freelance editor and the coordinator of the Independent Publishing Conference for the Small Press Network

Books+Publishing pre-publication reviews are supported by the Copyright Agency Cultural Fund.

Category: Reviews