Big fish : a novel of mythic proportions
(Book)

Includes "A Penguin readers guide to Big Fish", 9 p. at end.

In his prime, Edward Bloom was an extraordinary man. He could outrun anybody. He never missed a day of school. He saved lives and tamed giants. He was an inspired salesman-a visionary, in fact-and a beneficent real estate magnate who once bought a whole town just to make sure it would never change. Animals loved him. People loved him. Women loved him (and he loved them back). And he knew more jokes than any man alive. Or at least that's what he's told his son, William. William doesn't really know his father because, actually, Edward wasn't home all that much. So William sets out to discover who his father was by recreating his life in a series of myths and legends inspired by the few facts he knows. Through these tall tales, William begins to understand Edward Bloom's great feats-and his great failings. In scenes by turns hilarious and wrenching, tender and outrageous, Big Fish teaches us about the manipulative power of myth making, the search for an honesty somehow deeper than truth, and the redemption that can occur when one moves from life to death.