The Fishermen
Page 28
“We were fishermen. My brothers and I became—”
Mother let out a loud piercing cry that startled the court, throwing the session into a tumult. Father struggled to cover her mouth with his hand, his whispered entreaties that she be mum, breaking out aloud. All attention went to them as Father’s voice leapt from communal apology: “I’m deeply sorry, your Lordship,” to “Nne, biko, ebezina, eme na’ife a—Do not cry, don’t do this.” But I did not look at them. I kept my eyes on the green curtains that covered the heavily panelled and dust-covered louvres high above the level of the seats. A strong push of wind flayed them gently so that they looked for a moment like green waving flags. I closed my eyes while the commotion lasted and reclined into an encompassing darkness. In the darkness I saw the silhouette of a man with a rucksack walking back home the same way he’d left. He was almost home, almost within reach when the judge knocked his staff on the table three times and bellowed: “You may now proceed.”
I opened my eyes, cleared my throat, and started all over again.
Acknowledgements
Although it carries only my name, The Fishermen was produced through the efforts of many:
Unsal Ozunlu, great teacher and early reader—my Turkish father; Behbud Mohammadzadeh, my best friend, inestimable brother; Stavroula, who saw me through most parts of this; Nicholas Delbanco, helper, the shepherd, teacher of good habits; Eileen Pollack, eagle-eyed reader, who scraped the edges of the pages with a red pen; Christina, whose feedback turned the tide; Andrea Beauchamp, the kind helper; Lorna Goodison, the supplier of peace and love…
Jessica Craig, first-rate agent, tour guide, and friend in whose hands I feel at ease; Elena Lappin, the acquirer and editor, the invisible hand behind every page, the great believer; Judy Clain, bringer of joy, editor; Adam Freudenheim, publisher extraordinaire, who, even when bowled over, would not let go; Helen Zell, supplier of abundance and gift to writers…
Bill Clegg, early cheerer, a harbinger of good things; Peter Steinberg, who first sent word out; Amanda Brower, the swift one; Linda Shaughnessy, agent who flung the book far and wide; Peter Ho Davies, the deft trumpeter; Emeka Okafor; Berna Sari; Agnes Krup, DW Gibson and the wonderful people of Ledig House (Amanda Curtin, Francisco Haghenbeck, Marc Pastor, Saskya Jain, Eva Bonne and all); my wonderful fiction cohort and the great writers and faculty of the Helen Zell Writers’ program at the University of Michigan who go blue with their pens…
Daddy, the father of many; Nnem, the mother of a crowd; Aunty, the historian; Sisters—Maria, Joy, Kelechi, Peace; my brothers—Mike, Chinaza, Chuwkwuma, Charles, Psalm, Lucky, Chidiebere, this one is for you, a tribute…
To all whom I couldn’t, due to space constraints, mention, you know your hands were here, and I thank you as much as those listed here. And to my readers, a hundred times more.
About the Author
Chigozie Obioma was born in 1986 in Akure, Nigeria. His short stories have appeared in the Virginia Quarterly Review and New Madrid. He was a fall 2012 OMI Fellow at Ledig House, New York. Obioma has lived in Nigeria, Cyprus, and Turkey, and currently resides in the United States, where he has completed an MFA in creative writing at the University of Michigan. The Fishermen is his first novel.
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Contents
Cover
Title Page
Welcome
Dedication
Epigraph
Map
Chapter 1: Fishermen
Chapter 2: The River
Chapter 3: The Eagle
Chapter 4: The Python
Chapter 5: The Metamorphosis
Chapter 6: The Madman
Chapter 7: The Falconer
Chapter 8: The Locusts
Chapter 9: The Sparrow
Chapter 10: The Fungus
Chapter 11: The Spiders
Chapter 12: The Searchdog
Chapter 13: The Leech
Chapter 14: The Leviathan
Chapter 15: The Tadpole
Chapter 16: The Roosters
Chapter 17: The Moth
Chapter 18: The Egrets
Acknowledgements
About the Author
Newsletters
Copyright
Copyright
The characters and events in this book are fictitious. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental and not intended by the author.
Copyright © 2015 by Chigozie Obioma
Cover design by gray318
Cover copyright © 2015 by Hachette Book Group, Inc.
All rights reserved. In accordance with the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, the scanning, uploading, and electronic sharing of any part of this book without the permission of the publisher constitute unlawful piracy and theft of the author’s intellectual property. If you would like to use material from the book (other than for review purposes), prior written permission must be obtained by contacting the publisher at permissions@hbgusa.com. Thank you for your support of the author’s rights.
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First North American ebook edition: April 2015
Originally published in Great Britain by ONE, a division of Pushkin Press, February 2015
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ISBN 978-0-316-33836-3
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