The Fishermen

The Top 10 Novels of 2015: Part 2

By Daniel Ford

If you missed Part 1, check it out here. I’ve included some of my original reviews, as well as new insights. Feel free to share your own favorites in the comments section or tweet us @WritersBone.

5. Bull Mountain by Brian Panowich & Where All the Light Tends to Go by David Joy

Brian Panowich and David Joy go together like dark alcohol and a heavy glass. I read their novels fairly close to each other and befriended the authors on Twitter, so I didn’t have the heart to split them up.

As I said in “Bruce, Bourbon, and Books,” Panowich’s debut novel Bull Mountain follows the Burroughs clan throughout several decades in the North Georgia Mountains. At the center of the story stands Clayton Burroughs, the sheriff of Waymore Valley, an honest man standing at the foot of a corrupt mountain. A shadowy Federal agent gives him an opportunity by to finally extricate his family name from drug running and death, however, his hillbilly crime lord brother wants no part of any such redemption.

The narrative spans several generations of Burroughs men, always at odds with themselves, their kin, and the innocent bystanders in their wake. As with many of the other crime novels we’ve featured on Writer’s Bone, this one shines because of its literary dedication to its main characters. They feel as old and familiar as the book’s mountain setting and are hardwired into the plot in a dramatically complex way.

Panowich is also a helluva talker (as you’ll hear in the podcast below).

Joy’s novel is pure Southern noir poetry. As I mentioned in “Bruce, Bourbon, and Books” (are you sensing a pattern?), you’d swear some of the perfectly crafted lines in this work swam out of a high-end bottle of bourbon, picked up the first shotgun they saw, and blasted their way through Appalachia.

He also said one of the most insightful things about the writing process I’ve heard in all the interviews we’ve done this year: “I need one good sentence before I can move forward.” It’s true for a lot of writers and I like how Joy’s method led to Where All the Light Tends to Go's lyrical style.

I’ve been hearing good things about his follow up, so restock your bourbon shelf and finish off his debut so you can devour the next one!

4. The Tusk That Did All the Damage by Tania James

Tania JamesThe Tusk That Did the Damage completely charmed me. She utilized three narrators—including an elephant named The Gravedigger!—and weaved a tragic story while providing a deep back story for each one. When you’re not rooting for the resilient, emotionally broken elephant, you’ll be ensorcelled by a young man whose loyalty to his poacher brother knows no bounds, or troubled by the passive-aggressive filmmaking shooting a documentary on an elephant rehabilitation clinic.

She may have also won her way into the top five with this tweet:

3. My Sunshine Away by M.O. Walsh

One of the hallmarks of a great novel is how badly you want to get it into the hands of everyone you know. I’m pretty sure my copy of M.O. Walsh’s My Sunshine Away has made its way into the hands of just about every member of my family at this point.

Walsh’s crisp style and thought-provoking prose combines both literary fiction and a pulse-quickening thriller. Set in Baton Rouge, La., the novel explores the nature of “violent crime, unraveling families, and consuming adolescent love.” Fair warning, if you pick up this book in the store and read the first chapter, you’re going to end up buying it and throwing out the rest of your reading queue immediately.

I truly loved this novel and couldn’t be happier that Gary Almeter brought it up during our recent Friday Morning Coffee conversation. It made me remember the great experience I had reading the book and interviewing the author (podcast below).

2. God Loves Haiti by Dimitry Elias Legér

In our first interview, Dimitry Elias Legér told me, “I put my heart and soul into God Loves Haiti.” As I said in my February review, Léger’s heart and soul is evident on every page, every line of dialogue, and in every character.

Maybe I’m biased because Legér is a St. John’s alum, like myself, but his exploration of Haiti during the 2010 earthquake made my heart goudou-goudou. There’s also a scene in the middle of the novel that involves a woman locking her naked lover in a closet. The nude escape that ensues struck such a human note in the midst of a tragedy that I was laughing and crying at the same time (you’ll also be weeping at the ending, which still gets to me all these months later). If the resiliency, love, and, yes, humor, of Léger’s characters doesn’t make your heart goudou-goudou, then you should seek medical attention immediately.

He also gets bonus points for recording Writer’s Bone’s first Skype interview!

1. The Fishermen by Chigozie Obioma

I read most of Chigozie Obioma’s pitch perfect debut The Fishermen while on a bus headed back home to visit my parents for Easter. Perhaps it was the interaction with my own brothers that made this book stick with me so much. Maybe I saw my mother and father in the two parents trying to hold a family together in the face of suffering. Maybe it was making every local stop known to man between Hartford and Boston that made me savor every sentence, character, and theme.    

The novel is set in 1990s Nigeria and tells the heart-wrenching and bloody tale of four brothers whose lives are changed on the banks of a haunted river. Benjamin, the story’s 9-year-old narrator, attempts to makes sense of the changing world around him as his family is torn apart by a madman’s prophecy. The Fishermen begins so lightheartedly—the reader is led to believe that this is another coming-of-age story set in a foreign location—that later events crush you even more. It’s a book that should inspire you to craft your own great art. The best authors light a fire under you, and I can assure you, Obioma will be lighting fires for years to come.

It’s quite simply the best book I read all year. Obioma may not have won the Man Booker Prize, but I hope he can take solace in topping our humble list (and he better be working on his next book!).  

Read Part 1

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6 Books That Should Be On Your Radar: May 2015

Every month, the Writer’s Bone crew reviews or previews books we've read or want to read. This series may or may not also serve as a confessional for guilty pleasures and hipster novels only the brave would attempt. Feel free to share your own suggestions in the comments section or tweet us @WritersBone.

The Fishermen by Chigozie Obioma

Daniel Ford: Chigozie Obioma’s The Fishermen is set in 1990s Nigeria and tells the heart-wrenching and bloody tale of four brothers whose lives are changed on the banks of a haunted river. Benjamin, the story’s 9-year-old narrator, attempts to makes sense of the changing world around him as his family is torn apart by a madman’s prophecy. The Fishermen begins so lightheartedly—the reader is led to believe that this is another coming-of-age story set in a foreign location—that later events crush you even more. It’s a book that should inspire you to craft your own great art. The best authors light a fire under you, and I can assure you, Obioma will be lighting fires for years to come.        

Also, if you don’t stand up and cheer when the boys’ father delivers a rousing speech encouraging them to be “fishermen” that “will dip their hands in rivers, seas, and oceans of this life and become successful: doctors, pilots, professors, lawyers” then I don’t want to know you.

Wetlands by Charlotte Roche

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Robert Hilferty: Wetlands has an honesty and humor that reminds me a lot of Charles Bukowski but without the more problematic shit attached to it. It's full of raw emotion and reckless abandon that reminds me of the poor decisions I made growing up.

Done in One by Grant Jerkins and Jan Thomas

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DF: Any story that involves a S.W.A.T. sniper is going to have a thrilling plot, however, not all of them are going to have the big ole thumping heart beating on every page of Done in One (the novel was inspired by Jan Thomas’ real-life experiences). We first meet Jake Denton (“Fuckin’Denton”) on the hunt with his father. The lessons he learns are put to the test throughout the book, particularly when it comes to his equally badass wife Jill, a former medic (and aspiring author!) who is her husband’s first-response support team. But Jill isn’t some weepy female caricature. She’s whip smart, tough, demanding, compassionate, and honest. Jill has her tender moments for sure, but she proves over and over again that she’s very much Jake’s equal. Done in One is actually one of those novels that’s a character study wrapped in a thriller, which makes it so much more than a good beach read. Important questions are raised and dealt with and the authors humanize and reveal fresh insights into a world that is currently grossly misunderstood in today’s culture.

The Fateful Lightning by Jeff Shaara

DF: I recently read James Swanson’s excellent Bloody Crimes: The Chase for Jefferson Davis and the Death Pageant for Lincoln's Corpse, so I was primed for another good Civil War read. Author Jeff Shaara  (who I interviewed last June and will be speaking to again next week) didn’t disappoint with The Fateful Lightning, the final book in his series about the Civil War’s western front. The novel begins in November 1864 following William Tecumseh Sherman’s victory in Atlanta and covers the red-headed, cigar-smoking General’s famed “March to the Sea.” Shaara tells the tale from multiple perspectives on both sides of the conflict, humanizing these legendary figures with such skill that I’m convinced the author was close friends with them in another life. The Fateful Lightning is available for sale June 2, 2015 and would make the perfect Father's Day gift.

My War Gone By, I Miss It So by Anthony Loyd

Alex Tzelnic: In February 2015, The New Yorker published an article on the tragic death of Eric Harrouna U.S. Army veteran turned mercenary and informant. The piece mentioned the 1999 book My War Gone By, I Miss It So by Anthony Loyd. "That is a hell of a title," I thought. I largely forgot about the book until April, when I was perusing the shelves of a friend and came across a weathered and torn copy. "That is one of my favorite books," he told me. "Borrow it. Read it. Pass it around." Sometimes the literary gods drop subtle hints, and sometimes they drop a book in your lap and give you clear instructions. I read it.

My War Gone By, I Miss It So is a visceral and gruesome travelogue. Travelogue might be a confusing categorizationit is technically war journalism, as the book covers the conflicts in Bosnia and Chechnya during the 1990s. But war books are full of reportage, and though they ask why, it is usually a practical why: why did this conflict begin, what happened, and what does it mean? Loyd's why is more existential. As in a travelogue, he considers the question Kerouac wrote in his journals before flinging himself on the journey that became On the Road: "The night before travel is like the night before death. Why must I always travel from here to there, as it mattered where one is?"

Indeed, many of Loyd's nights are the night before death (though not his own), and the answer is complicated; his military heritage, his strained relationship with his father, and his addiction to heroin all play a part in his attraction to war. In taking this more personal tack, Loyd not only provides a compelling narrative about the horrors that unfolded in these wars, but examines why it is that people seek out darkness and brutality, and what can be learned from plumbing the depths.

Lloyd's lessons aren't easythey are haunting, conveyed with prose that is savage and scintillating. And his book doesn't just stay with you, it tears a hole and climbs in. Borrow it. Read it. Pass it around. But don't say I didn't warn you.

The Right Hand by Derek Haas

Sean Tuohy: The Right Hand is slim, but it packs a punch! It’s a spy thriller that doesn’t slow down until the last page. The novel features Austin Clay, the CIA’s secret weapon, as he tries to locate a missing deep cover agent in Russia. Author and screenwriter Derek Haas shoves in as much action as he can in between twist and turns that keep you on the edge of your seat. My biggest compliment is that in contrast to the current literary world’s overabundance of dark and brooding characters and edgy storylines, this book is fun, enjoyable, and hard to put down.

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