Fisherman's Dream

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  • FISHERMAN'S DREAM by Hemley Boum

A sweeping, emotionally resonant, multigenerational novel from award-winning Cameroonian author Hemley Boum, tracing the fate of a family divided by migration, memory, and the violent reshaping of their homeland. 

"Boum is a magnificent storyteller."--Le Monde

Winner of the Grand Prix Afrique 2025 and the Prix des cinq continents de la Francophonie 2025, The Fisherman's Dream is a brilliantly crafted novel that braids together the destinies of a grandfather and grandson, each carrying the weight of a world transformed by globalization, displacement, and the delicate inheritance of love.

Zacharias is a fisherman in Campo, a coastal village in southern Cameroon. His community--shaped for generations by the river's rhythms and the meeting of forest and ocean--is upended by the arrival of logging companies, industrial trawlers, and predatory economic interests that exploit both land and people. Violence, upheaval, and irreversible change tear apart Zacharias's family.

Decades later, his grandson--also named Zacharias--has fled Douala for Paris's 18th arrondissement. Isolated and adrift, Zack is haunted by a grandfather he never knew and a country whose wounds he carries in his body. The novel moves back and forth across eras and continents, revealing the long arc of memory and the things that are passed across generations.

A work of rare lyricism and political force, The Fisherman's Dream explores migration, ecological devastation, colonialism and its aftermath, and the rupture of traditional worlds, all while telling a moving multi-generational family story.

Fisherman's Dream
$19.00
Available for Pre-Order
Description

A sweeping, emotionally resonant, multigenerational novel from award-winning Cameroonian author Hemley Boum, tracing the fate of a family divided by migration, memory, and the violent reshaping of their homeland. 

"Boum is a magnificent storyteller."--Le Monde

Winner of the Grand Prix Afrique 2025 and the Prix des cinq continents de la Francophonie 2025, The Fisherman's Dream is a brilliantly crafted novel that braids together the destinies of a grandfather and grandson, each carrying the weight of a world transformed by globalization, displacement, and the delicate inheritance of love.

Zacharias is a fisherman in Campo, a coastal village in southern Cameroon. His community--shaped for generations by the river's rhythms and the meeting of forest and ocean--is upended by the arrival of logging companies, industrial trawlers, and predatory economic interests that exploit both land and people. Violence, upheaval, and irreversible change tear apart Zacharias's family.

Decades later, his grandson--also named Zacharias--has fled Douala for Paris's 18th arrondissement. Isolated and adrift, Zack is haunted by a grandfather he never knew and a country whose wounds he carries in his body. The novel moves back and forth across eras and continents, revealing the long arc of memory and the things that are passed across generations.

A work of rare lyricism and political force, The Fisherman's Dream explores migration, ecological devastation, colonialism and its aftermath, and the rupture of traditional worlds, all while telling a moving multi-generational family story.

Description

A sweeping, emotionally resonant, multigenerational novel from award-winning Cameroonian author Hemley Boum, tracing the fate of a family divided by migration, memory, and the violent reshaping of their homeland. 

"Boum is a magnificent storyteller."--Le Monde

Winner of the Grand Prix Afrique 2025 and the Prix des cinq continents de la Francophonie 2025, The Fisherman's Dream is a brilliantly crafted novel that braids together the destinies of a grandfather and grandson, each carrying the weight of a world transformed by globalization, displacement, and the delicate inheritance of love.

Zacharias is a fisherman in Campo, a coastal village in southern Cameroon. His community--shaped for generations by the river's rhythms and the meeting of forest and ocean--is upended by the arrival of logging companies, industrial trawlers, and predatory economic interests that exploit both land and people. Violence, upheaval, and irreversible change tear apart Zacharias's family.

Decades later, his grandson--also named Zacharias--has fled Douala for Paris's 18th arrondissement. Isolated and adrift, Zack is haunted by a grandfather he never knew and a country whose wounds he carries in his body. The novel moves back and forth across eras and continents, revealing the long arc of memory and the things that are passed across generations.

A work of rare lyricism and political force, The Fisherman's Dream explores migration, ecological devastation, colonialism and its aftermath, and the rupture of traditional worlds, all while telling a moving multi-generational family story.

ISBN
9798889662150
Publication Date
April 13, 2027
Binding
Paperback
Item Condition
New
Language
English
Pages
304
Keywords
Fiction | Family Life | General; Fiction | World Literature | Africa - General; Fiction | Immigration & Emigration; Fiction | Literary; Fiction | Political