Bare Poles (Unabridged‪)‬

Bristol, 1650: a city ruled by the stench of commerce and the cold reality of survival.

Isaac Thatch and Thomas Pellow are two boys navigating its brutal streets, their friendship a fragile pact against the world's cruelty. But they are built of different stuff, driven by opposing instincts. Ike, the wary pragmatist, finds his strength in the shadows, becoming a skilled smuggler who believes in nothing but his own escape. Tom, the restless idealist, finds his hope in the ships that prick the sky, seeking a life of adventure and honor on the open ocean.

Seven years and a world of pain separate them. When a new trade, piracy, and a rumor of an unimaginable prize bring them back together, they are no longer the boys they once were. Tom is a hardened buccaneer, and Ike is a man of secrets, but a coming storm and a shared, reckless act of defiance force them to confront the true cost of their choices.

Bare Poles is a sweeping story of two friends on a collision course with destiny, exploring the thin line between freedom and imprisonment, and the final, desperate struggle to reclaim who they once were.