Title: Salmon Fishing in the Yemen
Author: Paul Torday
Genre: fiction

When I first started this book and I realized  the story was going to be told through a series of emails, memos, and diary entries, I wasn't sure I was going to enjoy this book.
A Yemeni sheik contacts various agencies within the UK to help him bring salmon fishing to his country, the Yemen. A semi-devout Muslim, the sheik believes that the peacefulness of salmon fishing will bring his countrymen together, reducing violence and feeding the hungry among his people. Alfred Jones is a bland, middle aged fishery scientist that gets swept up in the project and his life and marriage are transformed.
 Paul Torday takes a potentially boring subject- salmon fishing- and livens it up for the non-fishing reader. Snippets of the life cycle of salmon are interspersed with the novel's plot line, making this a surprisingly interesting read. This book was brought to the big screen recently and stars Ewan McGregor and Emily Blunt.