All the narrator of The Anatomist’s Tale, by Tauno Biltsted, wants is have a career as a doctor in mid-1700s London. His lack of money and connections makes that modest dream impossible. So, like many young men of his place and time, the narrator signs on with a merchant ship to make his fortune on the seas. We learn right from the start that things do not go well for the young doctor because he tells us that he has ended up in the Marshalsea, one of the most notorious prisons in British history. In every chapter, the narrator unspools his tale to anyone who will listen, from a charwoman in the prison to the judges of the Admiralty. How did such good intentions go so wrong?

The unnamed narrator (most people call him Surgeon) signs on with an apparently charming captain to sail on The Royal Fortune. Surgeon will get a share of the profits after the voyage and, unlike the Navy, he has the chance to leave if he doesn’t like shipboard life once the trip is over. It seems like a good plan. Under a different captain, it might have been. But as Surgeon reveals to his various audiences, the captain’s brutality towards the crew leads the men to mutiny…which leads to Surgeon’s becoming a reluctant pirate-doctor.

I don’t know if the Admiralty will agree that Surgeon is innocent of the charges of piracy, but I was certainly convinced. As Surgeon’s tale rollicks along on the high seas and the deep South American jungle, we see a man who really didn’t have a choice. Circumstances were against Surgeon right from the beginning. When he was a child, enclosure meant that his father was no longer able to make a living from farming. The only good part of his life was his apprenticeship to a butcher and his years working his way through medical school. Once at sea, among the pirates, Surgeon has nowhere to go. He literally can’t get away from them. Worse, he’s tainted by association with the pirates. If caught, Surgeon faces a cruel execution. This theme of hopelessness and powerlessness is repeated in the stories Surgeon shares. Men are pressed into service on British ships. Africans are enslaved. One African even loses her identity as a woman to live more safely as a man. (The character of Jalil is fascinating.)

To cap it all off, The Anatomist’s Tale is written in beautiful, period-accurate prose. I loved the long sentences and the broad vocabulary. I really felt like I was listening to Surgeon, like I was listening to someone who lived in the 1700s. Surgeon’s words brought to life what it might have been like to sail with an international crew from London, to the Caribbean, to a place somewhere on the northern coast of South America called New Madagascar. This book is brilliant, on all counts. It’s an amazing work of historical fiction.

The Anatomist's Tale by Tauno Biltsted was such a weird and good little book. The entire time I was reading it, I felt like I was on a well-written Disney ride. Maybe it's because I just got Disney plus, but I was getting serious Pirates of the Caribbean vibes during this one which made for an interesting reading experience. Pirates of the Caribbean aside, this book was a lovely little read. Tauno Biltsted managed to create some super engaging characters in 200 pages and put together quite the adventure. I especially enjoyed the ending and would love a part II.

A solid, immersive story. I liked the voice of the narrator and the plot. I wasn't partial to long descriptions because, especially in the beginning, I found them painfully boring.

<i> The Anatomist’s Tale <i/> is a fascinating historical fictional account of how one man is swept away by the exciting and yet dangerous life of crime on the high seas. Our narrator is an impoverished but adventurous soul who is forced to work on ships to establish himself as a practicing surgeon. <i> The Anatomist’s Tale <i/> is one of many fiction and non-fiction works by Tauno Biltsted.

The narrator grows up in severe poverty where his father is a share-cropper who loses his right to farm their land. After his father deserts the family, his mother fails to keep things going, and the children are forced to leave home. Our narrator is indentured to a butcher who treats him very well allowing him to study the structure of animals they handle. Because of this experience, he becomes a surgeon and finds a place on a ship that trades in North America. Captain Bellamy, the captain of that ship, is extremely cruel. So eventually the crew mutinies, and our surgeon is forced into piracy to avoid certain death. Eventually he lands in prison. His story is told through a series of confessions to those visit him in his horrid cell in Marshalsea prison.

<i> … this monstrous prison – this grasping beast that feeds on the lives of men, consuming each of their passing moments until it grows heavy and grey and slick, heaving and steaming over the delicacies of suffering and boredom. <i/>

One of the highlights if this book is the descriptive language. One cannot help but truly feel what the narrator is experiencing.

The smooth progression of the story lets the reader understand how easily one could be engulfed by these same set of circumstances and end up in the same situation. It is very realistic. Biltsted also uses the unique technique of confessions to everyone from lawyers to chambermaids to even mice in the cell. This technique lets you feel how the narrator is initially healthy but slowly slips into insanity as his story unfolds.

I like this book because the language made it fun to read and because it is a realistic story that captures you. I highly recommend it to people who like adventures. I give it a 4 on 5. I would like to thank NetGalley and Lanternfish press for providing me with a prepublication digital version of this novel in exchange for a fair review.