The Fishermen
Overview
In a small town in western Nigeria, four young brothers – the youngest is nine, the oldest fifteen – use their strict father’s absence from home to go fishing at a forbidden local river.
They encounter a dangerous local madman who predicts that the oldest brother will be killed by another. This prophecy breaks their strong bond, and unleashes a tragic chain of events of almost mythic proportions.
Passionate and bold, The Fishermen is a breathtakingly beautiful novel, firmly rooted in the best of African storytelling.
With this powerful debut, Chigozie Obioma emerges as one of the most original new voices in world literature.
Details
- Format
- Size
- Extent
- ISBN
- Pub date
- Paperback
- 234mm x 153mm
- 304 pages
- 9781925106442
- 2 March 2015
Categories
Awards
- Shortlisted for the 2015 Man Booker Prize
- Winner of the 2015 Financial Times / OppenheimerFunds Emerging Voices Awards
- Shortlisted for the 2015 Guardian First Book Award
- Shortlisted for the 2015 The Edinburgh Festival First Book Award
- Shortlisted for the 2015 Center for Fiction First Novel Prize
- Longlisted for the 2015 Goodreads Choice Awards 'Best Debut Goodreads Author'
- Longlisted for the 2015 Etisalat Prize for Literature
- Winner of the 2016 NAACP Image Awards in the Outstanding Literary Work – Debut Author category
- Longlisted for the 2017 International Dublin Literary Award
Praise
‘Awesome in the true sense of the word: crackling with life, freighted with death, vertiginous both in its style and in the elemental power of its story. Few novels deserve to be called “mythic”, but Chigozie Obioma's The Fishermen is certainly one of them. A truly magnificent debut.’
‘Myth, madness and magic — this is an urgent book full of blood and beauty.’
