Name: The Fishermen
ISBN: 9781911590101

Chigozie Obioma

Wanneer vier broers gaan vissen in een rivier waar ze dat niet mogen, komen ze een waanzinnige tegen die onheil over hun familie afroept.

The Fishermen

Told from the point of view of 9-year-old Benjamin, the youngest of four brothers, 'The Fishermen' is the Cain and Abel-esque story of an unforgettable childhood in 1990s Nigeria. When their father has to travel to a distant city for work, the brothers take advantage of his extended absence to skip school and go fishing. At the forbidden nearby river they encounter a madman, who predicts that one of the brothers will kill another. What happens next is an almost mythic event whose impact - both tragic and redemptive - will transcend the lives and imaginations of both its characters and its readers.

T__T I know it was shortlisted for the man booker prize but the prose is so draggy. It feels like a series of actions being narrated, “Brother X did this. Brother Y did this. We climbed the fence. Father raised his voice. Mother dropped her eyes.” There is so much detail that the story moves slowly. DNF sorry

Xiang

In a Nigerian town in the mid 1990's, four brothers encounter a madman whose mystic prophecy of violence threatens the core of their close-knit family. Told from the point of view of nine year old Benjamin, the youngest of four brothers, THE FISHERMEN is the Cain and Abel-esque story of an unforgettable childhood in 1990's Nigeria, in the small town of Akure. When their strict father has to travel to a distant city for work, the brothers take advantage of his extended absence to skip school and go fishing. At the ominous, forbidden nearby river, they meet a dangerous local madman who persuades the oldest of the boys that he is destined to be killed by one of his siblings. What happens next is an almost mythic event whose impact-both tragic and redemptive-will transcend the lives and imaginations of its characters and its readers. Dazzling and viscerally powerful, The Fishermen never leaves Akure but the story it tells has enormous universal appeal. Seen through the prism of one family's destiny, this is an essential novel about Africa with all of its contradictions-economic, political, and religious-and the epic beauty of its own culture. With this bold debut, Chigozie Obioma emerges as one of the most original new voices of modern African literature, echoing its older generation's masterful storytelling with a contemporary fearlessness and purpose.

A Novel

Hannah Swithinbank

If I could give half stars this would be 3.5. It's much better than mediocre, but I didn't quite love it.

Daryl Houston

I liked the glimpse this one gave me of another culture, but it wasn't nearly as big or important a book to me as was Half of a Yellow Sun, which offered not only the look at another culture but greater beauty, tragedy, and richness than this one did.

SHORTLISTED FOR THE 2015 MAN BOOKER PRIZE In this dazzling debut novel, four young brothers in a small Nigerian town encounter a madman, whose prophecy of violence threatens the core of their family Told from the point of view of nine-year-old Benjamin, the youngest of four brothers, The Fishermen is the Cain and Abel-esque story of an unforgettable childhood in 1990s Nigeria. When their father has to travel to a distant city for work, the brothers take advantage of his extended absence to skip school and go fishing. At the forbidden nearby river they encounter a madman, who predicts that one of the brothers will kill another. What happens next is an almost mythic event whose impact - both tragic and redemptive - will transcend the lives and imaginations of both its characters and its readers. Chigozie Obioma emerges as one of the best new voices of modern African literature, echoing its older generation's masterful storytelling with a contemporary fearlessness and purpose. 'Obioma's beautiful, quasi-biblical allegory-like debut... is set to be one of the novels of the year' Eileen Battersby, Irish Times 'A startling debut... auspicious... leaps off the pages' Mariella Frostrup, Open Book 'A striking, controlled and masterfully taut debut... The tale has a timeless quality that renders it almost allegorical and it is the more powerful for it' FT 'It's like being in a Zola or Theodore Dreiser novel... The Fishermen is an elegy to lost promise... and yet it remains hopeful about the redemptive possibilities of a new generation' Guardian 'Awesome in the true sense of the word... a truly magnificent debut' Eleanor Catton, author of The Luminaries 'Suffused with an air of legend and the supernatural... The Fishermen establishes Obioma as a writer to be taken seriously... ingenious, subtle, ambitious and intriguing' TLS 'Terrific' Irish Examiner 'Full of deceptive simplicity, lyrical language and playful Igbo mythology and humour... an impressive and beautifully imagined work' Economist'A novel with an intimate canvas but also an undercurrent of something larger, more primal' We Love This Book 'A debut that is packed with power and tragedy' Shortlist 'Chigozie Obioma truly is the heir to Chinua Achebe' The New York Times 'Mr Obioma's long-limbed and elegant writing is shot through with strikingly elevated phrasings... its lessons may be slippery, but its power is unmistakable' Wall Street Journal 'The most frustrating thing about The Fishermen is that the author has no other books for the reader to devour once the final page is reached' Chicago Tribune 'Searing, incandescent' Harvard Crimson 'Succeeds as a convincing modern narrative and as a majestic reimagining of timeless folklore' Publisher's Weekly, Starred review 'A powerful, haunting tale of grief, healing, and sibling loyalty' Kirkus 'Darkly mythic... a kind of African Cormac McCarthy' USA Today '[A] confident début novel... frank and lyrical' New Yorker

Shreerag Plakazhi

Bhargav Acharya

azliana aziz

Nav Singh

Will Vunderink

A striking debut novel about an unforgettable childhood, by a Nigerian writer the New York Times has crowned "the heir to Chinua Achebe." Told by nine-year-old Benjamin, the youngest of four brothers, THE FISHERMEN is the Cain and Abel-esque story of a childhood in Nigeria, in the small town of Akure. When their father has to travel to a distant city for work, the brothers take advantage of his absence to skip school and go fishing. At the forbidden nearby river, they meet a madman who persuades the oldest of the boys that he is destined to be killed by one of his siblings. What happens next is an almost mythic event whose impact-both tragic and redemptive-will transcend the lives and imaginations of the book's characters and readers. Dazzling and viscerally powerful, THE FISHERMEN is an essential novel about Africa, seen through the prism of one family's destiny.

The Fishermen

Reviews

Highlights