In the 1990s Nigeria, four brothers from a quiet middle-class family–the oldest fifteen, and the youngest nine–take advantage of their father’s extended absence to skip school and go fishing at a forbidden river. There they encounter Abulu, a vision-seeing madman whose prophecy of violence will follow the boys through their lives, and shake up their family in both devastatingly tragic and yet redemptive ways.
Already deemed a “classic tale of boyhood,” The Fishermen is both a coming-of-age novel, and a powerful portrait of familial and brotherly bonds, and what happens when trust–the main chord that binds a family–is broken.
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International Editions
The Fisherman is being translated into 27 languages, and in 31 countries. Find below a list of international editions. Please click on the links (where available) for various publishers by countries to read about the editions. Links to reviews or purchase options are available on various publisher’s pages.
ARABIC | Hamad Bin Khalifa University Press (Forthcoming)
CATALAN | “El Pescadores” published by Quaderns Crema (2016)
CHINESE (Complex) | Locus Publishing (Forthcoming)
CHINESE (Simplified) | Booky (Forthcoming)
CROATIAN | Hena-Com (Forthcoming)
DANISH | Vi Var Fiskere by Forlaget Klim (2016)
DUTCH: Der verboden Rivier publsihed by De Geus (2015)
FINNISH | Atena Kustannus (Forthcoming)
FRENCH | Le Pescheurs published by Éditions de l’Olivier(2016)
GERMAN | Der Dunkle Fluss published by Aufbau (2015)
GREEK | Οι ψαράδες published by Metaichmio (2016)
HEBREW | Modan (Forthcoming)
HUNGARIAN| (Forthcoming)
ITALIAN | I Pescatori published by Bompiani (2016)
JAPANESE | Hayakawa (Forthcoming)
KOREAN | Cresma (Forthcoming)
MARATHI | Mehta Publishing House
NORWEGIAN | Font Forlag (Forthcoming)
PERSIAN |
POLISH | “Rybacy” published by Wydawnictwo Literackie (2016)
PORTUGUESE (Brazil) | Os Pescadores published by Globo (2016)
RUSSIAN | AST Publishing (F0rthcoming)
SERBIAN | Laguna (Forthcoming)
SPANISH |“Los Pescadores” published by Siruela (2016)
SWEDISH | Fiskamananen by Ordfront (2016)
TURKISH | Pegasus (Forthcoming)
UKRAINIAN| Hemiro Limited (Forthcoming)
Awards & Honors
FINALIST – The Man Booker Prize for Fiction*
WINNER – THE FT/OPPENHEIMER emerging voices prize for fiction*
WINNER – 2016 NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Debut Literary Work*
WINNER – The Art Seidenbaum Award for First Fiction*
WINNER – Nebraska book award 2016-fiction category
WINNER – GOG Bookclub Best New Author of the Year
FINALIST – THE GUARDIAN FIRST BOOK AWARD*
FINALIST – The Center for Fiction First Novel Prize*
FINALIST – British book industry award for best debut fiction*
FINALIST – Hurston/Wright Legacy Awards 2016
FINALIST – Best Debut Goodreads Author Award*
Longlisted – The Dylan Thomas first book prize*
FINALIST – Prix grive gauche a’ paris (France)
FINALIST – Prix du Roman (France)
FINALIST – Athens prize for literature (greece)
(Audio book version) earphone award winner*
(audio book version) audies awards finalist*
Other Works
- Finding The Light Under The Bushel: How One Writer Came To Love Books (2018) – New York Times
- Life-Saving Optimism: What the West Can Learn From Africa – The Guardian
- Africa Has Been Failed By Westernisation (2017) – The Guardian
- Midnight Sun (Short story, 2016) – NewStatesman
- Èkó ò ní bàjé : The growth of Lagos City —The Guardian
- Ghosts of My Student Years in Northern Cyprus-The Guardian
- Teethmarks: The Translator’s Dilenma–Poets and Writers, January/February 2016
- Audacity of Prose (Essay, 2015)-The Millions
- The Road To the Country (Poetry, 2015)-Virginia Quarterly Review
- The Great Convert (Short story, 2014)-Transition Magazine Issue 114
- Fishermen (Short story, 2011)-Virginia Quarterly Review
Events
>> March 25: Lagos, Nigeria: Page Connoisseurs Bookstore, Lagos
>> March 29: Port-Harcourt, Nigeria: Port-Harcourt Literary Society, Port-Harcourt
>> April 2-7: Iceland Writer’s Retreat, Reykjavik, Iceland
>> April 9: Kulturhuset Stardstream, Stockholm, Sweden (Tickets sold out*) with Yukiko Duke
>> April 10 : University of Gotheburg, Sweden with Mikela L. Hero
>> April 19: Hearth Book Promotion in Chico, Montana
>> April 22: AVID Reader Festival at the Des Moines Public Library
>> April 26-27: Arkansas Book Festival, Arkansas
>> May 30: An Orchestra of Minorities at the Vermont Studio, VT
>> July 7: AfricaWrites Festival, London
Chigozie Obioma is the author of The Fishermen, which was a finalist for the Man Booker prize 2015, and a winner of four other awards, including an NAACP Image award, the FT/Oppenheimer prize for fiction, and several nominations. The novel, which is being translated in 26 languages, is also being adapted into a stage play. Obioma was named one of Foreign Policy’s 100 Influential People of 2015. He is a professor of English and Creative Writing at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, and in Nigeria where where he runs various projects. His second novel, An Orchestra of Minorities was published on January 3, 2019.
