Wayne Curtis - Sons Of A Fisherman

Sons of a Fisherman is a collection of thirteen short stories by acclaimed New Brunswick author Wayne Curtis. In his customary evocative prose, Curtis describes days in the lives of the people who work and play on the rivers, drawing sustenance and nourishment of all kinds from the bounty the waterways provide.

“River Children” recounts the antics of youth who spend the day enjoying swimming and fishing before attending an evening church service with their father, a great fisherman in his younger years. In “The Late Run,” time on the river means money to support the family, as the boys serve as guides for the sports who come to fish the area. “Moving Shadows” recounts a young man’s first love, which blossomed on the frozen river and lasted his whole life. In “Autumn Waters” and “Christmas in the Time of Covid,” Curtis’s narrators are nostalgic for a way of life once enjoyed and now fondly remembered.

Writing of what he knows so well, Curtis offers to readers the world of his own childhood and youth, when the days were filled with hard work outdoors but also with the abundance of the river for employment, for play, and for meditation. His protagonists may long for literature and a more cultured life at times, but their affinity for the river is bone deep. As true to life as his human characters, the rivers of his stories are characters as well, full of moods and beauty, sustenance and danger. In Sons of a Fisherman, Curtis travels well-trodden paths with grace and the sure-footedness of a man who knows the life and loves it still.