Free (Kindle/iTunes UK) Fishermen [Award-Nom Nigerian Coming-of-Age Literary Drama]

[ATDrake]

The Fishermen by Chigozie Obioma is his debut literary fiction novel which is a coming-of-age drama set in Nigeria in the 1990s, centred around four brothers who encounter a madman who prophesies something startling and terrible, and what happens next, free courtesy of publisher Pushkin Press (Wikipedia), which specializes in translating and making available foreign literary fiction.

This has been favourably compared to the works of the late Chinua Achebe (Wikipedia), one of the major luminaries in African literature, as well as being nominated for a number of literary prizes, including being shortlisted for the FT Edinburgh Festival First Book Award, and longlisted for the FT Oppenheimer Awards and the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize, according to the author's website, and you can read three Q&As with him about the influences behind the book here and here and here, if you're interested.

And thus, it's a featured freebie selection of the iTunes UK store's Discover New Authors promotion, which is running throughout this weekend.

Currently free until Monday @ iTunes UK and thence price-matched at Amazon UK (and also available in Ireland, but not in any of the other usual EU/Oceania countries that sometimes get the UK freebies that I spot-checked, although YMMV). Price-drop-check linkage for B&N UK & Kobo, if you're feeling optimistic, but I doubt it'll show up due to being an iTunes special in the first place.

And this has been the (late!) selected 3rd (non-repeat) free ebook thread of the day.

Because it's always great to see more stuff from cultures not-so-well-known in the north-western portion of the world, and additionally nice to get it in the form of a much-praised and award-nominated story from a well-respected small press which specializes in making both such available (I have some of their other translated titles purchased from Kobo, where they happen to be couponable).

Enjoy!

Description
In this dazzling debut novel, four young brothers in a small Nigerian town encounter a madman, whose prophecy of violence threatens the core of their family

Told from the point of view of nine-year-old Benjamin, the youngest of four brothers, The Fishermen is the Cain and Abel-esque story of an unforgettable childhood in 1990s Nigeria. When their father has to travel to a distant city for work, the brothers take advantage of his extended absence to skip school and go fishing. At the forbidden nearby river they encounter a madman, who predicts that one of the brothers will kill another. What happens next is an almost mythic event whose impact - both tragic and redemptive - will transcend the lives and imaginations of both its characters and its readers.

Chigozie Obioma emerges as one of the best new voices of modern African literature, echoing its older generation's masterful storytelling with a contemporary fearlessness and purpose.