To commercial fishing people, a good fishing novel is a rare treat to be traded from boat to boat and read in the long hours at sea or increasingly in the all too many days tied up and waiting for an opening. Over the years, in my travels I have, occasionally come upon one of these treasures in translation from other lands. It was reading Marcel Barang’s English translation of Atsiri Thammachoat’’s Thai original "Of Time and Tide" that I picked up in a Bangkok bookstore, that prompted me to make this web page. The book made me aware how similar are the concerns, particularly in the most recent novels, of fishing communities around the world. Several novels speak to the over capitalization of the fleets that has forced surviving fishermen to work on corporate boats and travel ever further from home. Another theme is the sharp rise in the cost of waterfront property as the tourist industry crowds the beaches offering low-paying service jobs to once independent fishing people.

One of the challenges of a good fishing novel it to make the life and the technology of the fishing boat available to the general reader without insulting the knowledgeable reader. I think that each of the books here, most of which were written by people with onboard experience, meets that criterion. I invite comments on any of these titles, especially from people who have been or are currently involved in the particular fishery. If I can get short critics on novels by such knowledgeable fishermen I would like to post them with the books.

I have several more titles on my shelf that I will add when time allows. I look forward to seeing this page grow and invite submissions and suggestions for other novels that might belong here. For now I want to limit the page to novels only and look forward to hearing from you at alan@haig-brown.com

Chasing Davy Jones by Charlie Sheldon, 2003, Writer's Showcase Lincoln, NE 68512, ISBN: 0-595-26482-4 (pbk)	"Far Tortuga," Peter Matthiessen, Random House 1975, Bantham Books 1976
"Mattanza: Love and Death in the Sea of Sicily," by Theresa Maggio Perseus Publishing Cambridge, Massachusetts, 2000.	Spartina, John Casey, Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. New York, 1989
"Royce, Royce, the People's Choice," the story of a young man and the sea; Peter Hawes, Vintage, 2002.	"Saltwater Summer", by Roderick Haig-Brown, 1948, reissued by Harbour Publishing, Madeira Park, B.C. Canada, 2000
"The Suzie A", by Alan Haig-Brown with illustrations by Richard Tetrault, Pacific Educational Press, The University of British Columbia, 1991	"A River Called Titash", by Adwaita Mallabarman translated from the Bengali (1956/86) by Kalpana Bardhan, University of California Press, Berkeley, 1993
"The Fisherman’s Son", by Michael Koepf, Broadway Books, New York, 1998	"Of Time and Tide", by Atsiri Thammachoat, (1985) translated by Marcel Barang, TMC 6, Bangkok, 1995
Highliners, William B. McCloskey, Jr., McGraw-Hill Book Company, New York, 1979	"Shipwrecks", Akira Yoshimura translated from the Japanese, "Hasen" (1982) by Mark Ealey, Harcourt Brace & Company, New York, 1996
"Calm at Sunset, Calm At Dawn", by Paul Watkins, Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston, 1989	"Moving Water", Joan Skogan, Beach Holme Publishing, Vancouver, 1998
"The Forty Fathom Bank," Les Galloway, Chronicle Books, San Francisco, 1994	"Snow Falling On Cedars", David Guterson
"Captains Courageous", Rudyard Kipling