Play Book Tag discussion

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.

This is easily one of the best pieces of fiction I have read in many years. The novel is dense, filled with figurative language, quality character development, and well crafted plot development, and as such it reads slower but is well worth the time and effort to read.

As the book jacket summary states, this is a Cain and Abel type story but it is so much more than that even in the area of biblical allusion. It is a story of what happens when moral leadership is removed, of what happens when hope gives way to despair, and possibly most importantly it is a story of redemption. This novel is truly in the vein of great novels when it comes to the use of biblical allusion.

The book is also timely as it deals with issues of mental health and how we treat and handle those with mental health problems as a society. While one of the primary characters clearly has mental health struggles, that cause strife for the narrator's family, their treatment and handling of the one with mental health struggles also raises issues of morality and character that cannot be ignored.

Lovers of classically written high-quality fiction should add this book to their shelves, but this book should also be making it into the list of literature taught in senior level classrooms across the country.