I went into this book completely blind on a recommendation, and I just consumed it on audible over a few days. Initially, I was worried: a fishing horror story? Having grown up angling with my grandad, I thought it could end up pretty tame.
The opening paragraphs quickly disabused me of this notion and whetted my appetite with imagery of an endless black sea and a woman whose mouth just kept opening. From this, it quickly took me into the abyss of grief that is the first part of the book. Abe and Dan’s journey to widowhood is raw, open, and as a father of 2 small children, incredibly uncomfortable to get through. The payoff is worth it however, as Abe and Dan’s friendship hit the point where one is drunk and philosophising in the others’ kitchen. This part ends in a diner, before a day of fishing, where the pair listen to the story of the river they intend to visit: Dutchman’s creek.
The second, and larger, part of the book concerns Lottie, an old dying woman who knew the history of the creek, and her story that started in Germany and ended at the flooding of the Ashoktan valley. The account of her life and the actions of her father cross worlds, lives, and credulity in the best traditions of weird fiction. It plays as the epilogue to a Lovecraftian story which comes to light at the end of the part.
Finally the book covers Abe and Dan’s personal journeys to the creek, and both face their grief in the most visceral way imaginable, before attempting their own versions of closure.
I highly recommend this book, and the narration on audible was first class. Get it here: https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/the-fisherman-john-langan/7497813