Mutiny: A Novel of the Bounty

Overview

Fourteen-year-old pickpocket John Jacob Turnstile has just been caught red-handed and is on his way to prison when an offer is put to him---a ship has been refitted over the last few months and is about to set sail with an important mission. The boy who was expected to serve as the captain's personal valet has been injured and a replacement must be found immediately.

Given the choice of prison or a life at sea, John soon finds himself on board, meeting the captain, just as the ship sets sail. The ship is the Bounty, the captain is William Bligh, and their destination is Tahiti. Their journey, however, will become one of the most infamous in naval history.

Mutiny is the first novel to explore all the events relating to the Bounty's voyage, from the long passage across the ocean to their adventures on the island of Tahiti and the subsequent forty-eight-day expedition toward Timor. This vivid retelling of the notorious mutiny is packed with humor, violence, and historical detail, while presenting an intriguingly different portrait of Captain Bligh and Mr. Christian than has ever been presented before.

Internationally bestselling author John Boyne has been praised as "one of the best and original of the new generation of Irish writers" by the Irish Examiner. Now, with Mutiny, he has created an eye-opening story of life---and death---at sea.

Editorial Reviews

Boyne (The Boy in the Striped Pajamas) revisits William Bligh's doomed expedition in this adequate seafaring historical. Captain's servant John Jacob Turnstile, a 14-year-old orphan and thief, avoids a prison sentence by accepting a position aboard Bligh's ship, the Bounty. The ship's mission to Tahiti is tumultuous, and once the ship reaches its destination, some crew members become enamored of the island women. On the return voyage, they stage a mutiny and turn the ship around, forcing Bligh and the sailors loyal to him onto a small boat with minimal provisions. Boyne's take on the story capitalizes less on the tension among the warring factions, focusing more heavily on Turnstile's coming-of-age, while Bligh wavers between an abrasive task master and a health nut with a sensitive side. The novel succeeds as a historical adventure, but it doesn't add much to the already bulging bulk of Bounty books. (Feb.)
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Author Information

Bio of John Boyne

John Boyne is the author of Crippen, The Thief of Time, Next of Kin, and the New York Times and internationally bestselling The Boy in the Striped Pajamas. Boyne won two Irish Book Awards (the People's Choice and the Children's) for The Boy in the Striped Pajamas, which has recently been made into a Miramax feature film, and his novels have been translated into more than thirty languages. He lives with his partner in Dublin. You can visit him online at www.johnboyne.com.

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Additional Info

Imprint

Thomas Dunne Books

Filesize

1.10 MB

Number of Pages

416

eBook ISBN

9781429965583