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English Passengers - Matthew Kneale
English Passengers
by: (author)
4.00 10
"English Passengers is an old-fashioned book in the best sense: epic in scale, crammed with outsize characters, set in a long-ago time and a faraway place... 'A-'"—Entertainment Weekly"Robust and rollicking...unforgettable...It's tough to pull off a memorable epic, but Kneale has done it. So get... show more
"English Passengers is an old-fashioned book in the best sense: epic in scale, crammed with outsize characters, set in a long-ago time and a faraway place... 'A-'"—Entertainment Weekly"Robust and rollicking...unforgettable...It's tough to pull off a memorable epic, but Kneale has done it. So get comfortable, and be prepared to enter a fascinating world."—New York PostWhen Captain Illiam Quillian Kewley and his band of rum smugglers from the Isle of Man have most of their contraband—but not all—confiscated by British Customs, they are forced to put their ship Sincerity up for charter. The only takers are two eccentric Englishmen who want to embark for the other side of the globe.The Reverend Geoffrey Wilson believes the Garden of Eden was on the island of Tasmania. His traveling partner, Dr. Thomas Potter, unbeknownst to Wilson, is developing a revolutionary, and sinister, thesis of his own, about the races of men. And these passengers are perhaps only slightly more odd than the crew itself, a diverse and lively bunch better equipped to entertain one another than to steer Sincerity around Cape Horn and across the Indian Ocean. Yet they set sail, pointed southward and bound for a thrilling, epic romp across the high seas and cultures of the nineteenth century.Meanwhile, an aboriginal in Tasmania named Peevay recounts his people's struggles against the invading British, who prove as lethal in their good intentions as in their cruelty. This is no Eden but a world of hunting parties and colonial ethnic cleansing. As the English passengers haplessly approach Peevay's land, theirbizarre notions ever more painfully at odds with reality, we know a mighty collision is looming.Full of dangerous humor, English Passengers combines wit, adventure, and harrowing historical detail in a mesmerizing display of storytelling. Narrated by over twenty different
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Format: hardcover
ISBN: 9780385497435 (0385497431)
Publisher: Nan A. Talese
Pages no: 464
Edition language: English
Bookstores:
Community Reviews
Bettie's Books
Bettie's Books rated it
4.5 English Passengers by Matthew Kneale
bookshelves: historical-fiction, hardback, one-penny-wonder, paper-read, booker-longlist, tbr-busting-2012, summer-2012, victoriana, adventure, colonial-overlords, racism, seven-seas, doo-lally Read from June 06 to 09, 2012 hardbackone penny wonderhistorical fictionVan Dieman's LandIsle of Manbo...
Overloaded Bookshelf
Overloaded Bookshelf rated it
5.0 English Passengers
My favourite kind of book - farcical, tragic, and brilliantly written. Love it.
Cecily's book reviews
Cecily's book reviews rated it
4.0
An excellently quirky, educational, thought-provoking, and often humourous book that avoids being confusing (despite multiple narrators) or off-putting when describing the more shocking aspects of the near extinction of Aborigines in Tasmania and the views of white supremacists. Even the potentially...
helenliz
helenliz rated it
4.0 English Passengers: A Novel
This is such fun! Narrated by the various characters that appear, there are a number of strands of story - a smuggling expedition gone wrong, a mad voyage to discover the Garden of Eden, an anthropological travesty of research, the convict system in Tasmania and the fate of the Tasmania aborigines. ...
Bettie's Books
Bettie's Books rated it
4.0
hardbackone penny wonderhistorical fictionVan Dieman's LandIsle of Manbooker longlistWhitbread winnerpub 2000summer 2012 (my pick for a bank holiday read in the sun)tbr busting 2012victorianacontraband462 pages. Withdrawn from: The home of my sprogitude!Dedication - Victoria Eganopening: Say a man ...
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