"Fredy Neptune" is a novel written in verse

Verse novel

A verse novel is a type of narrative poetry in which a novel-length narrative is told through the medium of poetry rather than prose. Either simple or complex stanzaic verse-forms may be used, but there will usually be a large cast, multiple voices, dialogue, narration, description, and action in a...

 by the Australian poet Les Murray

Les Murray (poet)

Leslie Allan Murray, AO , known as Les Murray, is an Australian poet, anthologist and critic. His career spans over forty years, and he has published nearly 30 volumes of poetry, as well as two verse novels and collections of his prose writings...

 that was published in 1998.

Told in eight-line stanzas, "Fredy Neptune" describes the experiences of Fred Boettcher, an Australian of German parentage, during the years between the world wars. The work was described by the British poet Ruth Padel

Ruth Padel

Ruth Sophia Padel is a British poet, Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and Zoological Society of London. She also writes non-fiction and more recently fiction, broadcasts on wildlife, poetry and literature for BBC Radio 3 and 4, and is Writer in Residence at The Environment Institute,...

as "a haunting, loving, fiercely democratic epic by a master poet."

Structure

The work is divided into five sections:
Book I The Middle Sea
Book II Barking at the Thunder
Book III Prop Sabres
Book IV The Police Revolution
Book V Lazarus Unstuck