The Award Tally
The Fishermen cover

The Fishermen

Chigozie Obioma

The Fishermen

See the full ranking

In this striking novel about an unforgettable childhood, four Nigerian brothers encounter a madman whose mystic prophecy of violence threatens the core of their close-knit family. 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.

Buy this book at Amazon
Publisher
One
Year
2015
ISBN-13
9780316338363
Genre
Fiction
Topics
Family and sibling relationshipsProphecy and fateComing of age in Nigeria

Awards

Other awarded books from Chigozie Obioma