The following version of this book was used to create the guide: Carey, Edward. The Swallowed Man. Riverhead Books, 2021.

Edward Carey’s The Swallowed Man offers a retelling of the Pinocchio story from the perspective of Pinocchio’s father, the wood carver, Geppetto. The novel begins after Geppetto is swallowed by a gigantic sea beast and discovers he is able to live within the beast’s belly. He takes up residence within a wrecked ship, the Maria, and finds supplies such as candles, hardtack, paint, and other materials that allow him to survive. He begins to record his story and his experiences in the former captain’s log.

Throughout the novel, the narrative switches back and forth between Geppeto’s existence in the beast’s belly and his previous life in the town of Collodi. He writes about his difficult relationship with his father, his failed romances, and especially about his son Pinocchio. According to Geppetto, he carved a wooden puppet to relieve his loneliness and to bring him fame and fortune. He did not expect the puppet to come to life, and he is initially cruel and dismissive of Pinocchio, treating him as an object rather than a son. He gradually softens and allows Pinocchio to go to school, but his son disappears after the first day. Inconsolable, Geppetto journeys far and wide seeking news of his son and finally discovers that Pinocchio had been sent out to sea. He sails off in pursuit of his son and ends up swallowed.

In his watery prison, Geppetto writes, paints, and makes figurines out of the materials available to hm. As he creates these objects, he relates elaborate backstories concerning their possible histories and how they came to be aboard the ship. He also finds photographs he believes to represent the previous captain and his family and generates stories for them as well. All the while, Geppetto knows that his days are numbered, and he keeps a steady countdown of the number of candles he has left to see by.

One night, Geppetto drinks some wine and wakes believing he has carved another wooden child. Unlike Pinocchio, this child is sinister to his eyes, and he begins to refer to it as the ill-face. This wooden child torments Geppetto with tricks and taunts such as writing in his captain’s log, and Geppetto becomes increasingly fearful of the ill-face’s growing presence and power. He fends off attacks as well as he can but fears what will happen once the candles are gone.

After one attack, Geppetto retreats to the captain’s cabin and attempts to paint a portrait of Pinocchio in the light that remains. As the ill-face approaches, Geppetto carves another object out of wood, a curious mix of fish and boy that comes to life as Pinocchio had. Geppetto rushes to save this fishboy and succeeds in throwing him free of the sea beast. Geppetto himself is unable to escape and falls back into the beast’s belly, smashing the ill-face as he tumbles back. Before Geppetto’s last candle burns out, Pinocchio arrives to rescue him from the beast.

In the Afterward, a doctor describes what happened on a small island in Maine after a sea monster washed up on their shores. The beast rots and causes a pestilence for the town, and the doctor orders the beast destroyed. Beforehand though, he enters the beast and discovers the Maria along with a number of Geppetto’s creations. The doctor reads Geppetto’s captain’s log but sees no evidence of the man himself. After the beast is destroyed, the doctor sets up a Fish Museum to display the objects he found within the beast’s belly.