The Far Land

The Far Land swells in the cause and effect of actions of passion. Brandon Presser’s fascinating narrative of the relentless consequences of the Bounty mutineers asks: were they brave or damned? They lived so very troubled ever after. You can’t make this stuff up! A highly accomplished travel writer, Brandon Presser’s The Far Land hits a lot of my pleasure centers: remote islands, then-and-now non-fiction, historical mysteries and forthright travelogues. The first night I started reading, I dreamed about Pitcairn Island. Meticulously researched…Armchair adventurers will appreciate the author’s sharp and sympathetic eye, showing us the mechanics of a truly remote civilization. Presser’s detailed account provides a sense of authority to a story too bizarre to be anything but true. Brandon Presser moves far beyond the Mutiny on the Bounty to the devastating tale of the Pitcairn Island settlement, a real-life Lord of the Flies tragedy. As Brandon finds when he makes a protracted visit to the island, it’s a story still unwinding and a definite reminder that island and paradise are two words which often don’t go together. It’s a tale which seamlessly blends his new take on the mutiny and its aftermath with his own experiences on Pitcairn today. The Far Land uncovers the almost unbelievable true story of Pitcairn Island, while taking readers on an exciting journey to one of the most remote communities in the world… Presser excels at depicting the strangeness, but his novelistic account of what happened to the original colonists is stranger and bloodier-and unforgettable in its shocking details… Lord of the Flies pales in comparison. A mash-up of an 18th-century adventure novel and the darkest episode of ‘Law & Order: Special Victims Unit’ imaginable. Riveting and obsessively researched.