Chigozie Obioma’s debut novel, The Fishermen, has been longlisted for the Man Booker Prize 2015 ─the most prestigious prize in literature in English. He is one of only 3 debut novelists and he is the sole African author on this list of 13 exceptionally strong writers. You can check the full list here, and read more about each novel here.
Chigozie Obioma was born in Akure, Nigeria. He was an OMI fellow at Ledig House, New York, and has won the Hopwood Awards for fiction and poetry. He has lived in Nigeria, Cyprus and Turkey, and currently resides in the United States, where he completed an MFA in Creative Writing at the University of Michigan.
The Fishermen is a debut novel of astonishing visceral power, which tells a painful story with supreme elegance and grace. 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. The Fishermen will published in 9 languages, and counting. You can check the updated list of foreign publishers here.
«This year’s most promising African newcomer may well prove to be Chigozie Obioma. (...) In his exploration of the mysterious and the murderous, of the terrors that can take hold of the human mind, of the colors of life in Africa, with its vibrant fabrics and its trees laden with fruit, and most of all in his ability to create dramatic tension in this most human of African stories, Chigozie Obioma truly is the heir to Chinua Achebe.» New York Times Book Review
At Pontas, we couldn't be happier! Here's the team celebrating Chigozie making it into the longlist, only a few minutes after it was announced. Congratulations to Chigozie Obioma, to ONE imprint of Pushkin Press, and to the international publishers of The Fishermen!
From left to right: Jessica Craig, Leticia Vila-Sanjuán, Anna Soler-Pont, Maria Cardona and Marina Penalva.