Amphibian Man (Amphibian) is perhaps the most well-known novel by Alexander Beliaev, a talented Russian science fiction writer who lived in the early 20th c. First published in 1928. The book tells a story of a young man named Ichtiandr (literally "Fish Man" in Greek) who as a child received a life-saving transplant - a set of shark gills. The operation was performed by his father, a scientist and a maverick surgeon, in an attempt to save his son's failing lungs.