Fisherman's Blues cover art

Fisherman's Blues

A West African Community at Sea

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Fisherman's Blues

By: Anna Badkhen
Narrated by: Anna Badkhen
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About this listen

 NAMED A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR BY THE CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR AND PASTE MAGAZINE

An intimate account of life in a West African fishing village, tugged by currents ancient and modern, and dependent on an ocean that is being radically transformed.

The sea is broken, fishermen say. The sea is empty. The genii have taken the fish elsewhere.

For centuries, fishermen have launched their pirogues from the Senegalese port of Joal, where the fish used to be so plentiful a man could dip his hand into the grey-green ocean and pull one out as big as his thigh. But in an Atlantic decimated by overfishing and climate change, the fish are harder and harder to find.

Here, Badkhen discovers, all boundaries are permeable--between land and sea, between myth and truth, even between storyteller and story. Fisherman's Blues immerses us in a community navigating a time of unprecedented environmental, economic, and cultural upheaval with resilience, ingenuity, and wonder. Africa Anthropology Ecosystems & Habitats Nature & Ecology Outdoors & Nature Science Sociology Urban Fishing

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This book contains brilliant close observation of life among fishers on the coast of Senegal. The author and narrator lived with the fishers and went out with them as a member of the crew and simply records what they did and what they said. There is no word of criticism or judgement and no sentimental views on their way of life. But from the observations, stories emerge - some funny, some tragic and some commonplace human behaviour. I found myself very moved by the stories and the background that is alluded to of ecological disaster in the ocean, poverty and corruption and the courage of the people involved. I was reminded of Walter Scott's "It's not fish you're buying, it's men's lives." I found the accent and phrasing a bit odd at first but it works well and the narrator captures the cadences of natural speech when she's reporting conversations. A great read.

Sharp close observation leads to powerful stories

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it was a bit floaty and not very precise or engaging. it read like a stream of concousiness

a interesting subject made dull by narration

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