The Fishermen
SynopsisPlot
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.
Story
About this book
The Fishermen is set in Akure, a small town in southwestern Nigeria, during the 1990s. Four brothers begin sneaking off to fish at a forbidden river after their strict father leaves for work in a distant city. There they meet a local madman who tells the eldest boy that one of his own siblings will kill him. That prophecy starts to strain the family's bonds.
Chigozie Obiama tells the story through nine-year-old Benjamin, the youngest brother, and shapes it around a pattern familiar from the biblical account of Cain and Abel. The father's long absence, the boys' truancy, and local fear surrounding the madman all affect how the prediction takes hold. Benjamin narrates events he only partly understands, which keeps the account close to a child's view.
Akure is a real city, the capital of Ondo State in Nigeria's Yoruba-speaking southwest, and the novel keeps its childhood scenes anchored there: school routines, riverbanks, and the close quarters of a household with four sons. The book presents violence and grief in plain terms, and it treats prophecy as something a community can believe into action.
