The Swallowed Man
Edward Carey reimagines the Pinocchio story from inside the whale. Geppetto, the lonely carver who made a wooden boy and then lost him, is swallowed by an enormous fish and finds himself living in the wreck of a ship inside its belly. There he keeps a journal, sketching and writing as he confronts his regrets, his guilt, and his longing for the son who ran away. Carey, who illustrates his own books, fills the novel with strange drawings and a voice that is by turns funny and grieving. It is a short, odd, moving fable about parenthood, loneliness, and the things we make to keep ourselves company.
What you might want to know about The Swallowed Man
The questions readers send us most often, answered without spoilers.
Geppetto, the woodcarver who made Pinocchio, keeps a journal during the years he spends trapped inside the belly of a great fish.
Yes. Margaret Atwood praised it, calling Geppetto's journal of his years inside the whale bizarre and moving.
The Swallowed Man was written by Edward Carey, published in 2021 by Riverhead Books.
The Swallowed Man is 304 pages in standard print editions, though page counts vary slightly between hardcover, paperback, and large-print formats.
At an average reading pace of about 250 words per minute, The Swallowed Man takes most readers 5 to 7 hours to finish.
The Swallowed Man is available in hardcover, paperback, ebook, and audiobook formats from Amazon, Bookshop.org, ThriftBooks, and most major bookstores.