The Fisherman and His Son

“This story of a couple who rescue a baby from a boat after their own son was lost at sea highlights environmental degradation, Mediterranean history, and the ongoing pain of refugees.” —New York Times Book Review

“Blends narrative seamlessly with reflections on political, social, and environmental issues as Livaneli deftly explores the hardships faced by refugees…powerful.” —Reader’s Digest
 
“A fable-like tale with a strong moral message, tackling issues of immigration, climate change, and industrialization…never has a book been as relevant as it is today.” —Litro
 
“A novel in conversation with Hemingway, one that grounds Hemingway’s seagoing theme of resilience with threads of pragmatism and an understanding of the larger consequences of conflict on individuals…[Freely] has translated the spirit of Livaneli’s activism into a smooth prose unafraid of the complicated metaphors contained within the novel.” —The Rumpus

“At the center of this novel stands unfathomable tragedy. Gracefully, masterfully, Zülfü Livaneli does not force the reader into trying—and failing—to fathom the unfathomable. Instead, this novel, which is thrumming with Keatsian negative capability, intertwines human misery and nonhuman mystery—the contemporary refugee crisis; a small island crawling with snakes; invasive, poisonous puffer fish and encircling, crafty cats; national histories of population transfers and personal histories of rotten marriages and youthful romances; dreams of a shark-headed man; a baby delivered from the depths by a father dolphin; corporate rapaciousness and environmental degradation; jasmine flowers in evening bloom—and in so doing, creates a loose and intricate tapestry of sorrow and solace, one that invites the attentive reader to glimpse, if even for a moment, ‘the size of the cloth,’ as the poet Naomi Shihab Nye put it. Brendan Freely’s translation is stark, elegant, and fluid; the story that unfolds is propulsive and dramatic, harrowing and multilayered. This is a wonderful book.” —Moriel Rothman-Zecher, author of Before All the World and Sadness Is a White Bird

“In this tightly woven novel of the sea, Zülfü Livaneli writes of a deep sense of longing at the intersection of loss, environmental catastrophe, and the continuing tragedy of the Mediterranean refugee crisis. The Fisherman and His Son is a moving story that explores the ways in which everyday people navigate their lives in the shambles of the modern nation.” —Nishant Batsha, author of Mother Ocean Father Nation

“The Fisherman and His Son homes in on the measured devastations and triumphs that come with sea life on the Aegean, bringing to earth the romanticism of Western writers who tend to forget that the sea, while a stunning component of natural aestheticism, is also a border—a border with all the complications of contemporary sociopolitical tensions…This is a novel in line with the sort of compassionate revolution that Livaneli himself espouses: one in which love and solidarity lays the groundwork for survival in the tumult of modern life.” —The Rumpus