The Sky Fisherman

Craig Lesley’s novel The Sky Fisherman is about a small town in the Pacific Northwest and the complex lives of the narrator, Culver, and his family as they try to establish themselves in a dying town. The book takes place in the mid-1990s, when the novel was published, as mills are dying and the timber industry is becoming less profitable. Culver, a fatherless teen struggling to come to terms with many disparate elements of his life, is forced to reckon with the secrets is mother has kept from him, as well as violence against the local Native American community and a string of tragedies in his small town.

The novel opens as Culver, his mother, and stepfather move from their slightly nicer home in a small logging town to a house in the middle of nowhere – down another rung on the economic and social ladder. This time, Culver's mother has had enough of his manic and unreliable stepfather, and she leaves him to move back into town with the support of Culver's Uncle Jake, a charismatic man who runs a local river guide service.

Many years ago, Culver's father, Dave, died in the same river where Uncle Jake now runs boats. Since then, Culver and his mother have been on their own, navigating his mother's often-tumultuous relationships with unstable men. With Uncle Jake, however, Culver seems to come into his own. Uncle Jake is more than happy to play the role of father for his nephew, and he invites Culver to a small local men's group called the backroom boys. Among the backroom boys are a baker, a radio show host, a lumber mill glue mixer, a crop duster, and an Indian sheriff, whom many in town consider mysterious.



Culver spends most of his time fishing, playing basketball, and working in the bait-and-tackle shop Uncle Jake runs on the side when he isn't out guiding on the river. He and his Uncle Jake take a number of fishing trips, where they talk about life and what it's like to live in the small town while the mills die around them. However, life isn't all peace and quiet. Culver's stepfather is running from the law after getting picked up for setting a railroad compound on fire. He keeps popping in and out of Culver's life, and Culver suspects him of setting a series of horrific wildfires that lay waste to the small timber community where Culver and his mother live.

Other troubles include the murder of a Native American, and the bias it brings out in white locals, who have long been resentful of the resident tribe. Culver struggles with this bias, not only because he is a kind boy, but also because he has become friends with the Native American sheriff, who teaches him the ways of his tribe's mysticism.

Finally, a fire engulfs the mill and part of the town, leaving the townsfolk confused and lost for a way forward. Around the same time, Culver learns a secret – Uncle Jake may have been so willing to play the role of father because he might have been Culver's father all along. This revelation comes just as Uncle Jake dies in a flood on the same river that took Dave.



Left without the light of his uncle's charismatic and heroic personality, Culver finally gets up the courage to question his mother on what actually happened when his father died. After learning the secrets of his past, Culver accepts his mother's new boyfriend, Franklin, a local dentist who may give the family more stability than Culver had ever imagined.

A resident of Portland, Oregon, Craig Lesley is the author of half a dozen books, including four novels and one memoir. He has received a number of Pacific Northwest Bookseller Association Awards, as well as an Oregon State Book Award, and serves as the Writer-in-Residence at Portland State University. The Sky Fisherman and Storm Riders were both nominated for a Pulitzer Prize.