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The far land : 200 years of murder, mania, and mutiny in the South Pacific

documentary heritage
  • Description

    "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."--publisher information

  • Place
  • Other Id

    DU800 PRE 2022 (Library of Congress Call Number)

    92795 (Cat ID)

    92565 (Presto content ID)

  • Department

Images and documents

Images

Catalogue

  • Object Type
  • Name/Title
    The far land : 200 years of murder, mania, and mutiny in the South Pacific
  • Primary Maker
  • Contributor/Publisher
    PublicAffairs
  • Place
  • Date
    2022
  • Physical Description

    xiii, 327 pages : maps ; 25 cm

  • ISBN/ISSN
    9781541758575
    1541758579
  • Language
    English
  • Level of Current Record
    Bib record
  • Member Object

    1 item in this collection. View all items.

  • Edition/State/Version
    First edition
  • Subject Category
  • Content
    Turn on the quiet -- The strangest hello -- Artocarpus Incisa -- Discovery in the age of the superstore -- A score of worlds -- The three legs of man -- The last grande dame of Tahiti -- Mutiny on the Bounty -- The backwater emissary -- The geometry of solitude -- The fallout zone -- The quiet -- The museum people -- The Devil's workshop -- Pandora's box -- Dreadfruit -- Portrait of a family -- Hunting pigs -- An eye for an eye -- A spider's progress -- The book of fear -- Down rope -- Time, chance, and death -- Far from help -- Bury the hatchet -- Children of castaways -- The strangest bonjour -- Austerity -- Epilogue: Turn off the quiet
  • Public Access Text

    [Keywords: Presser, Brandon--Travel--Pitcairn Islands; HISTORY--Oceania; Pitcairn Islands--History; Pitcairn Islands--Description and travel; Pitcairn Islands]

    Includes bibliographical references and index

  • Collection Type
    Reading Room
  • Last Update
    06 Dec 2024
The development of the Auckland War Memorial Museum online collection is an ongoing process; updates, new images and records are added weekly. In some cases, records have yet to be confirmed by Museum staff, and there could be mistakes or omissions in the information provided.

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