The Fisherman
Abe and Dan are two recent widowers who find quiet companionship fly-fishing the streams of upstate New York. A diner owner warns them off Dutchman's Creek with the story of Der Fischer, a 19th-century immigrant who tried to bargain with something living in the black ocean beneath the water. Langan nests the inner story inside the outer one, builds the cosmic-horror set piece into one of the longest in modern weird fiction, and brings the men back out into a Catskills landscape that will not look the same again. The novel won the 2016 Bram Stoker Award.
Where The Fisherman keeps showing up
One of our editors' lists features this novel.
What you might want to know about The Fisherman
The questions readers send us most often, answered without spoilers.
Two widowed fly-fishermen hear the story of Der Fischer and a black ocean beneath a Catskills stream in John Langan's Bram Stoker winning weird-horror novel.
Yes. The Fisherman is widely cited as one of the great cosmic horror novels of the 21st century. It blends Catskills regional fiction with Lovecraftian dread. The novel won the Bram Stoker Award for Superior Achievement in a Novel in 2017.
Yes. The Fisherman builds dread slowly through a frame story, with the deepest horror landing in the embedded historical narrative. Most readers find the novel atmospheric rather than gory, with a sustained sense of unease.
The Fisherman was written by John Langan, published in 2016 by Unknown Publisher.
The Fisherman is 304 pages in standard print editions, though page counts vary slightly between hardcover, paperback, and large-print formats.
At an average reading pace of about 250 words per minute, The Fisherman takes most readers 5 to 7 hours to finish.
The Fisherman is a standalone novel by John Langan, not part of a series.
The Fisherman is available in hardcover, paperback, ebook, and audiobook formats from Amazon, Bookshop.org, ThriftBooks, and most major bookstores.
