A True Account
Hannah Masury’s Sojourn Amongst the Pyrates, Written by Herself
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- $16.99
Publisher Description
From New York Times bestselling author Katherine Howe comes a daring first-hand account of one young woman's unbelievable adventure as one of the most terrifying sea rovers of all time.
In Boston, as the Golden Age of Piracy comes to a bloody close, Hannah Masury – bound out to service at a waterfront inn since childhood – is ready to take her life into her own hands. When a man is hanged for piracy in the town square and whispers of a treasure in the Caribbean spread, Hannah is forced to flee for her life, disguising herself as a cabin boy in the pitiless crew of the notorious pirate Edward "Ned" Low. To earn the freedom to choose a path for herself, Hannah must hunt down the treasure and change the tides.
Meanwhile, professor Marian Beresford pieces Hannah’s story together in 1930, seeing her own lack of freedom reflected back at her as she watches Hannah's transformation. At the center of Hannah Masury’s account, however, lies a centuries-old mystery that Marian is determined to solve, just as Hannah may have been determined to take it to her grave.
A True Account tells the unforgettable story of two women in different worlds, both shattering the rules of their own society and daring to risk everything to go out on their own account.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Howe (The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane) brings the world of 18th-century pirates to life in this bracing outing. In 1726 Boston, 17-year-old Hannah Masury flees indentured servitude with Billy Chandler, a boy who's hiding from the privateers he betrayed to the law to save himself. After Billy's caught and killed, Hannah assumes his identity and boards another pirate ship, where ruthless Ned Low takes command in a grisly mutiny that sees him cut off the previous captain's lips and feed them to a dog. Unnerved by Ned's brutality, Hannah pretends to be his "unquestioning shipmate" until she has a chance to flee. In a parallel narrative set in the 1920s, Radcliffe College student Kay Lonergan discovers Hannah's journal in a basement on campus; in it, Hannah hints at the location of a buried treasure in the Carribean region. Kay's professor Marian Beresford has her doubts about the journal's authenticity, but after Marian mentions it to her father, John, a famous explorer, he offers to fund an expedition to search for the treasure. As the Beresfords travel with Kay to the Florida Keys and Kay's excitement draws interest from the press, Marian worries she'll be the one discredited if the journal turns out to be a fake. Hannah's adventures are riveting, and Howe manages to connect the parallel stories by highlighting how her women protagonists navigate the whims of powerful men. Historical fiction fans will love this. This review has been updated with further information.
