The Fishermen: A Novel

The Fishermen: A Novel

<b>A striking debut novel about an unforgettable childhood, by a Nigerian writer the <i>New York Times</i> has crowned "the heir to Chinua Achebe."</b> <br /><br /> Told by nine-year-old Benjamin, the youngest of four brothers, <i>The Fishermen</i> 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. <br /><br /> Dazzling and viscerally powerful, <i>The Fisherman</i> is an essential novel about Africa, seen through the prism of one family's destiny.