Soon, though, the men find themselves drawn into a tale as deep and old as the Reservoir. When Abe and Dan, two widowers who have found solace in each other's company and a shared passion for fishing, hear rumours of the Creek, and what might be found there, the remedy to both their losses, they dismiss it as just another fish story. Steep-banked, fast-moving, it offers the promise of fine fishing, and of something more, a possibility too fantastic to be true.

“In upstate New York, in the woods around Woodstock, Dutchman's Creek flows out of the Ashokan Reservoir. It was a chance to examine my grief and pain through the lens of someone else’s life and someone else’s loss. Having finally read the book, I can confirm that although the dark Lovecraftian tale did bring my grief to the forefront of my mind, it was an almost cathartic read.

So it sat, gathering dust on my shelf for a number of years. I know the triggers in my life and for a long time after buying this book, I assumed this would be one of them. For this reason I’ve always been cautious about reading ‘The Fisherman’ by John Langan, which was released in 2016. I know I’ll never fully recover from the pain that it’s inflicted on me, despite the lulls in its grasp, it’s always there. Personally, I’ve experienced grief on a life changing scale. You never move away from the shores of grief, merely learn to adapt yourself to living in the dark shadow of its grasp.

The fisherman book john langan