In this humane, affecting tale of a Turkish couple who lose their child and find another, the internationally bestselling author of Disquiet explores the ethical questions surrounding immigration.
Fisherman Mustafa and his wife, Mesude, are devastated with grief for their son Deniz, who was lost at sea at seven years old. One day, Mustafa discovers the bodies of a woman and man in the water, likely refugees from Syria, Pakistan, or Afghanistan drowned as they attempted to reach Greece. Nearby, he also finds a baby boy, tied to a small inflatable boat and miraculously alive. Mustafa and Mesude at first welcome the child as a precious gift, a second Deniz, but when a woman appears, claiming to be his mother, they must make a painful decision.
Through their heart-wrenching story, Zülfü Livaneli sensitively evokes the struggles of migrants seeking a safer life in unknown, often hostile lands. In the process, he elucidates the history and culture of the Aegean, and the ecological destruction wreaked by corporations in the region.
Genre: Literary Fiction
Fisherman Mustafa and his wife, Mesude, are devastated with grief for their son Deniz, who was lost at sea at seven years old. One day, Mustafa discovers the bodies of a woman and man in the water, likely refugees from Syria, Pakistan, or Afghanistan drowned as they attempted to reach Greece. Nearby, he also finds a baby boy, tied to a small inflatable boat and miraculously alive. Mustafa and Mesude at first welcome the child as a precious gift, a second Deniz, but when a woman appears, claiming to be his mother, they must make a painful decision.
Through their heart-wrenching story, Zülfü Livaneli sensitively evokes the struggles of migrants seeking a safer life in unknown, often hostile lands. In the process, he elucidates the history and culture of the Aegean, and the ecological destruction wreaked by corporations in the region.
Genre: Literary Fiction
Praise for this book
"In this tightly woven novel of the sea, Zulfu 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
"At the center of this novel stands unfathomable tragedy. Gracefully, masterfully, Zulfu 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
"At the center of this novel stands unfathomable tragedy. Gracefully, masterfully, Zulfu 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
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