Synopses & Reviews
Drifting in a life raft off the northern California coast after a horrifying shipwreck, Neil Kruger retreats from his fear by recalling scenes from his childhood as the son of a commercial fisherman out of Half Moon Bay. With his emergency rations fast running out, he finds solace in his vivid memories: his powerful attachment to his father, a man who could predict the weather by looking at the stars; his painful estrangement from his mother, who worked at the local cannery to keep the family fed; his fascination with the hard lives and large hearts of a host of fellow fishermen.
In those early years, economic necessity forced Neil's parents to send him out on the ocean, and as he grows into the fisherman's life we learn the real cost of his father's struggle with the sea. There are battles with sea lions who steal his catch, the ever-present threat of storms, the heartwrenching drowning of one of his father's closest friends, and the horror of a hospital ship shattered by a fog-bound accident. As the story builds to its powerful, inexorable climax, we come to witness the terrible consequences the sea can exact upon those who depend upon it for a meager living.
The Fisherman's Son is at once an intimate story of a troubled family and an evocative memorial to the fast-disappearing world of commercial fishermen. In muscular, poetic prose, and with a powerful sense of the authentic on every page, Michael Köepf has created a triumphant novel about our lifelines to childhood and the pull of the sea.
Synopsis
Published in hardcover to tremendous acclaim, The Fisherman's Son tells the tale of Neil Kruger, who, lost at sea off the northern California coast, retreats from his fear by recalling scenes from his Half Moon Bay childhood. Through vivid memories of his father -- a commercial fisherman who can predict storms by looking at the stars -- his enigmatic mother, and the hard lives of the warm, witty fellow fishermen who keep a struggling industry alive, Neil's story is an enthralling tale that illuminates our lifelines to childhood and the irresistible lure of the sea.
About the Author
Michael Köepf worked for nineteen years as a commercial fisherman, which was also the trade of his father and his brothers. Formerly a journalist and a teacher, he is currently writing a screenplay about Lewis and Clark for Steven Spielberg's Dreamworks SKG. K
öepf lives in Elk, California.