The Braver Thing, Clifford Jackman
The Braver Thing, Clifford Jackman
List: $20.00 | Sale: $14.00
Club: $10.00

The Braver Thing

Author: Clifford Jackman

Narrator: Patrick Garrow

Unabridged: 10 hr 59 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 08/25/2020


Synopsis

From the acclaimed author of The Winter Family, a swash-buckling adventure from piracy's Golden Age and a deft political allegory for our troubled times. Treasure Island meets Lord of the Flies.

In 1721, when the most notorious pirates are either dead or on the run, Jimmy Kavanagh, who sailed with Blackbeard, decides to pull together a "Company of Gentleman of Fortune" for one last "Adventuring Cruise" that will set them all up for life. All begins well: the pirates sail across the Atlantic and sack Cape Coast Castle, looting it of chests of gold ill-gotten from the slave trade. But before Kavanagh can lead them on, he sickens, unleashing a drastic series of power struggles among the company. As further victories transform them from the hunters to the hunted, the pirates descend into mutiny, show trials, assassination and tyranny as they flee from their pursuers and struggle against the seas.

Full of epic sea battles and storms, peopled with characters worthy of Mutiny on the Bounty, Jackman's pirate voyage is also an object lesson in how political systems degrade as the pirates, who set out as a band of brothers, are powerless to prevent the erosion of the norms and values that hold their Company together. Where they end will shock you. But given our own times, it might not surprise you.

About The Author

CLIFFORD JACKMAN's debut novel, The Winter Family, published in Canada, the US, France and Germany, was a finalist for the Governor-General's Literary Award for Fiction and longlisted for the Scotiabank Giller Prize. He lives in Guelph, with his wife, Cathy, and two children.


Reviews

Goodreads review by karen on June 29, 2022

fulfilling my 2022 goal to read one book each month that was not published in my country that i wanted badly enough to have a copy shipped to me from abroad and then...never read. review pending!......more

Goodreads review by Enid on October 16, 2020

I was so excited to read this… as hot on the heels of Gil Adamson’s Ridgerunner as I could find the time to read it… I grew up at my grandfather’s knee reading his Louis L’Amour and Zane Grey and all… I devoured Jackman’s previous novel, The Winter Family, when it came out… it ranks right up there f......more

Goodreads review by Byron on March 14, 2021

This book is the most fun I've had reading in quite a while. The plot was never predictable and kept me entertained with every twist and turn. One of the things that made this book fun is the unique setting. It was like a western on the high seas. I knew nothing about pirates of this time and it was......more

Goodreads review by Marion on September 19, 2020

So good. It gets darker and darker in the best way. Lord of the Flies for grownups.......more

Goodreads review by Cindy on March 22, 2021

Obed Coffin arrives in New Providence in the Bahamas on 21 April 1721. Although a Quaker with a wife and child, he has nowhere else to go. He is a seaman, carpenter, and helmsman, but only one ship seeks enlistments – a vessel of pirates, or so rumors go. The perfect place for the damned. But how ca......more


Quotes

The Braver Thing delivers enough lively incident to satisfy the most jaded appetite for skulduggery on the high seas.” —The Stratford Beacon Herald

“Swashbuckling adventure ahoy! Treasure Island meets Lord of the Flies in this seafaring story of pirates, plundered loot and mutiny that is both a high-stakes story of piracy’s golden age and a political allegory for our times.” —The Globe and Mail

“Five years after his acclaimed debut, The Winter Family—the Giller Prize-listed and Governor General Literary Award finalist is back with another bloody adventure of historical fiction that rings true to his masterful meditation on human nature, fractured societies and crumbling leadership.” —Guelph Today