7.6 /10 1 Votes
Language English Media type Print Originally published 2015 Publisher Little, Brown and Company | 3.8/5 Goodreads Publication date April, 2015 ISBN 978-0-316-33837-0 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Nominations Booker Prize, Guardian First Book Award Awards NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Literary Work - Debut Author Nigeria books Under the Udala Trees, Blackass, Born on a Tuesday: A Novel, Americanah, The Palm‑Wine Drinkard | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
The Fishermen is the debut novel by Nigerian author Chigozie Obioma, published in 2015. The novel follows four brothers in a small Nigerian village who are given a violent prophecy which shakes their family to the core. It is set in the 1990s, during the rule of Sani Abacha.
Contents
It was shortlisted for the 2015 Man Booker Prize. The novel received a number of accolades, and positive reviews from critics.
Plot
Four brothers, Ikenna, Boja, Obembe and Benjamin, begin to fish at the Omi-Ala river near their home in the village of Akure. They do so despite being forbidden from doing so by their parents, as the river is heavily polluted. While on one of their fishing trips, they encounter Abulu, a madman who delivers prophecies that the residents of the village believe. Abulu predicts that Ikenna will be killed by a fisherman, presumably one of the other brothers. The prediction undoes the family and the expectations the brothers' parents have for them.
Development and writing
Obioma has seven brothers and four sisters, and wrote the novel as a tribute to his siblings. Two of Obioma's brothers fought violently when they were children, and Obioma was inspired by what he imagined was the worst possible outcome of those fights.
Reception and criticism
The novel has garnered comparisons to Things Fall Apart in part due to the central role prophecy has in each novel. However, some critics disputed the validity of the comparisons. It also references the Biblical story of Cain and Abel, and has been referred to as a "retelling" of the story.
Multiple critics referred to the novel as a bildungsroman given that it is told from the perspective of one brother, and charts his youth.