In real life, I witnessed him begin the slow process of death by many mini-strokes. In the novel, he represents Moses’ right-hand man.
His name is a direct reference to Joshua of the Old Testament, the man who led the Israelites into the Promised Land after forty years wandering in the wilderness. That man was known as Joshua, son of Nun. The Hebrew name ‘Nun’ means either ‘fish’ or a type of fish. I simply modernised and translated it to Joshua Fish.
As a contemporary friend of Lydia, he tells her about his unusual childhood, raised by an old guy acting as an informally adoptive guardian. That unnamed fellow, who we learn used to ‘lay down the law a bit’, is a reference to Moses, to whom...