A thrilling true tale of power, obsession, and betrayal at the edge of the world
In 1808, an American merchant ship happened upon an uncharted island in the South Pacific and unwittingly solved the biggest nautical mystery of the era: the whereabouts of a band of fugitives who, after seizing their vessel, had disappeared into the night with their Tahitian companions.
Pitcairn Island was the perfect hideaway from British authorities, but after nearly two decades of isolation its secret society had devolved into a tribalistic hellscape; a real-life Lord of the Flies, rife with depravity and deception.
Seven generations later, the island’s diabolical past still looms over its 48 residents; descendants of the original mutineers, marooned like modern castaways. Only a rusty cargo ship connects Pitcairn with the rest of the world, just four times a year.
In 2018, Brandon Presser rode the freighter to live among its present-day families; two clans bound by circumstance and secrets. While on the island, he pieced together Pitcairn’s full story: an operatic saga that holds all who have visited in its mortal clutch—even the author.
Told through vivid historical and personal narrative, The Far Land goes beyond the infamous mutiny on the Bounty, offering an unprecedented glimpse at life on the fringes of civilization, and how, perhaps, it’s not so different from our own.
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Brandon Presser moves far beyond the Mutiny on the Bounty to the devastating tale of the Pitcairn Island settlement, a real-life Lord of the Flies tragedy. As Brandon finds when he makes a protracted visit to the island, it’s a story still unwinding and a definite reminder that island and paradise are two words which often don’t go together. It’s a tale which seamlessly blends his new take on the mutiny and its aftermath with his own experiences on Pitcairn today.
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Tony Wheeler, co-founder, Lonely Planet