He could outrun anybody, and he never missed a day of school. Animals loved him. People loved him. Women loved him (and he loved them back). And he knew more jokes than any man alive.

Now, as he lies dying, Edward Bloom can't seem to stop telling jokes - or the tall tales that have made him, in his son's eyes, and extraordinary man. Big Fish is the story of this man's life, told as a series of legends and myths inspired by the few facts his son, William, knows. Through these tales - hilarious and wrenching, tender and outrageous - William begins to understand Edward Bloom's great feats, and his great failings, managing to reckon with the father he's about to lose. And find a way to say goodbye.