Thank you for access to this book via giveaway! I enjoyed being able to check it out and have told friends about it who would be interested in the premise even though I myself did not fully complete the book. Thanks for the opportunity to learn more!

My "Booktalk with Diana Korte" podcast interview with Brandon Presser about "THE FAR LAND: 200 Years of Murder, Mania, And Mutiny in The South Pacific” says it all for me. Here it is--
https://radiopublic.com/booktalk-with-diana-korte-Wkql4x/s1!65c96

I didn't enjoy the style or pacing of this book. It felt much too slow. I also wanted a lot more from this book as a lot of it just felt like speculation. This book follows a historical event where there weren't first-hand accounts of the events and a lot of the material had to come from other accounts. For many people this book contains content that is disturbing. This book was difficult to get through due to issues with pacing.

I would like to thank Public Affairs for providing me with an ARC.

Thank you to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for allowing me to read a free advance copy of The Far Land in exchange for an honest review.

The Far Land is told in alternating timelines between the original voyage of the Bounty and the current time. Rather than create a contrast between life on the island 200+ years ago and the present, this literary device instead serves to draw out the similarities between life on a very small island with no escape and no outside resources in both time periods. Before reading this book I had no idea that there was anywhere on earth as remote as Pitcairn Island! It has only been in the last 20 years that a resupply ship began to visit the island every 3-4 months.

The residents of the island for the last 200+ years serve as a ready made science experiment in the psychology of a small group of people dealing with social isolation. The intra-island relationships discussed in this book made a dramatic impression on me of how prehistorical societies that were isolated from any other human group would have formed a social hierarchy. The book documents the horrifically violent history of conflict resolution between the residents, the xenophobia endemic to the residents today, the racial prejudice on the island in the first generation to settle there, the gender prejudice and assault throughout the island's human history, and the surprisingly twisted and varied role of religious beliefs.

This is not a fast-paced tale. Nor is it a feel-good tale. I had nightmares after some of the scenes. It is, however, a well and deeply researched look into a fascinating historical event and the events that unfolded after that event. Brandon Presser did a fantastic job of bringing Pitcairn into the world's view.

I liked aspects of this book, particularly the experience of the author with the people of Pitcairn and Norfolk Islands and would definitely read an expanded book about that. I also found some of the commentary re: how he researched the history very interesting. I wasn't as pulled in to the recreations of the historical events though. I found it very fascinating that his conversations with the Bounty descendants seemed to really push him toward trying to detail the history and impact of the Tahitian women and I hope that he (or someone else) is able to find more about them. So often the women's stories are lost to history and given the isolation and lack of documentation, I suspect these women are as well but very much appreciated the efforts to call them out, return their original names, and share more about them.

I received a copy of this book from netgalley and the publisher to review.

I received an advance reading copy (arc) of this book from NetGalley.com in return for a fair review. Before I read this book, all I knew about the mutiny on the Bounty was gleaned from a Hollywood movie starring Charles Laughton as Captain Bly and Clark Gable as Fletcher Christian. While it was a good film, I have come to know that there is way more to the story. Author Brandon Presser and his well-written book about, not just what happened on board the Bounty, but also the events that occurred on the isolated island of Pitcairn where the mutineers settled. Of course, they could not go back to England because they would be hung for their crimes, but life on Pitcairn was not a happy one. There was lots of bloodshed, numerous affairs, and some madness to go along with it. While researching his story, Presser visited the island where he found 48 descendants of the mutineers still living in their own little world with a generator that provides power to the entire island only during the day. At night, the men take turns shutting it down. A ship delivers goods four times a year and that is pretty much how Presser got on and off Pitcairn. While his current narrative was quite interesting, I found the toggling between past and present a bit jarring. I can assure you, however, that what happened after the mutiny was much more interesting than the mutiny itself. Murder and mayhem doesn't begin to describe it. For those of you (and I include myself here) who dream about running away to a tropical island, you should read this book. You may rethink your plan!

🌊📖Great subject but not my favorite Bounty account🌴

3-3.5🌟 stars
The subject of Presser's story is a historical mystery that has fascinated me for many years. Maybe I would have enjoyed this book better had I not read some previous, classic accounts of the Bounty mutiny and its aftermath. Having read Charles Nordhoff and James Norman Hall's trilogy and Bengt Danielsson's What Really Happened on the Bounty?, I did not learn much I had not already gleaned from the other accounts.

The eighteenth/nineteenth century portion of the story is written in a flowery, antiquated style and seemed pretty slow paced until the latter part of the book when things on Pitcairn started to fall apart. The portions about the mutineers and their Polynesian partners' thoughts, particularly regarding religion, seemed pure speculation. Presser's efforts to give the sailors and their Polynesian companions life and personality did, however, succeed for the most part.

This is a story that's been cloaked in mystery from the moment Fletcher Christian decided to hide away from the world and found the mischarted, isolated Pitcairn. We will probably never truly know what transpired in the missing years between the mutineers' departure from Tahiti and their decimated community's discovery on Pitcairn decades later. This book contains a pretty good account of the events that can be verified by multiple sources and, for someone interested in the mutiny and its aftermath, I think this would be a good overview. It's just not fast-paced or always written in a style I enjoy.

The modern content, on the other hand, being a non-fiction account of the author's stay on Pitcairn in 2018, his dealings with the mutineers' descendants and his contact with Hall's descendants in Tahiti, I really did enjoy.

Thanks to Public Affairs and NetGalley for sharing a complimentary advance copy of the book; this is my voluntary and honest opinion.

The Far Land: 200 Years of Murder, Mania, and Mutiny in the South Pacific by Brandon Presser is a very highly recommended reexamination of the story of the HMS Bounty mutineers and their Tahitian companions.

In 1790 the mutineers of the HMS Bounty settled on the South Pacific island of Pitcairn. In 1808, an American merchant ship came upon the uncharted island in the South Pacific. "Seven generations later, the island’s diabolical past still looms over its 48 residents; descendants of the original mutineers, marooned like modern castaways. Only a rusty cargo ship connects Pitcairn with the rest of the world, just four times a year." In 2018, travel writer and author Brandon Presser took the freighter Pitcairn to live among the present day two clans on the island who are bound by circumstance and secrets. While on the island, he collected the details of Pitcairn’s full story.

The story of mutiny of the Bounty has been told through books and films numerous times. Presser makes it clear that the mutiny was only the prologue to the actual dramatic events that occurred on the island. The Far Land adds to the collection with both chapters focusing on the historical events and chapters told through a contemporary personal narrative. He recounts in detail the original mutiny and settling of Pitcairn and his 2018 visit to meet the islands 48 inhabitants. Most of the current residents are descendants of the mutineers.

Presser has visited over 130 countries and is an experienced travel writer who can look beyond the novelty of an experience and dig deeper into the real story behind the facade. He uncovers a tale of power, tribalism, obsession, paranoia, and betrayal. Presser does an excellent job presenting the exhaustive research he undertook. References and a select bibliography are included. This is a well-written, great choice for anyone interested in Pitcairn's history and its current inhabitants.
Disclosure: My review copy was courtesy of PublicAffairs Books.
The review will be published on Barnes & Noble, Edelweiss, Google Books, and Amazon.

In The Far Land travel writer Brandon Presser turns to the story of the HMS Bounty and its mutineers, who escaped to and settled the remote Pitcairn Island - the Far Land. The book is a dual telling of the mutineers' story, along with the author’s own present day travel tale of Pitcairn Island.

The chapters devoted to Presser’s 2018 trip to Pitcairn are the most readable. Pitcairn is one of the remotest inhabited places in the world. Located in the Pacific Ocean midway between Australia and Cape Horn, its only scheduled transport is a freighter that carries supplies and passengers four times a year to the island.

The island has only 48 full time inhabitants, all descendants of the Bounty mutineers. Pitcairn is less than 2 square miles, so Presser is able to see most of it while there. There are no stores or hotels, given its remoteness, so he is a guest in a “family stay” arrangement. He splits his stay between the two family groupings (they call themselves “piles”), the Christians and the Warrens.

While staying with the Warrens he learns that a sizable number of Bounty descendants live on Norfolk Island, almost 4000 miles away, where they were relocated by the British government in the 1850s. Later in the book he ventures to Norfolk to visit the Bounty descendants there.

Interspersed through his travel narrative are chapters covering the Bounty mutiny, the settling of Pitcairn, and the murder and mania that followed. I didn’t enjoy these chapters as much. Done as narrative nonfiction, I found them uneven, and the writing wasn’t as inspired or engaging as in the travel chapters. Even so, any set of stories that includes “Massacre Day” as a plot point will hold your attention.

The Bounty set out to deliver breadfruit trees from Tahiti to the Caribbean as food for slaves on British sugar plantations. The ship and its crew spent several months in Tahiti, and many of the men fell in love with the island and its women, and were not looking forward to the long return voyage.

The Bounty’s captain, William Bligh, was not an easy man to get along with or serve under. While the immediate cause has been lost to history, something set off his first mate Fletcher Christian on the 1789 return trip. He and a group of his fellows forced Bligh and those loyal to him into a life boat and set them adrift.

Now on the run in the Bounty, Christian and his men returned to Tahiti where some opted to stay. The rest, along with the Tahitian women they had fallen for (and a few Tahitian men) left in the Bounty. They decided to settle on Pitcairn, as its remoteness made it the least likely place the British Navy would find them. Unfortunately, it did not turn out to be the paradise they imagined.

The story of the Bounty sailors and the Tahitians who settled Pitcairn, and then mostly lost themselves to alcohol, animosities and murder, has long fascinated outsiders. It’s been the basis of several books and at least three movies.

In this book, Presser has done his research to separate fact from Hollywood fiction. It’s a worthwhile, but uneven read. I give The Far Land Three Stars ⭐⭐⭐

NOTE: I received an advanced copy from NetGalley and PublicAffairs. I am voluntarily providing this review. The book will be publicly available on March 8, 2022.

The Far Land by Brandon Presser is a superb read with an engrossing plot and vibrant characters. Well worth the read!

If you're familiar with The Mutiny on the Bounty, you've probably heard of Pitcairn Island. Author Brandon Presser takes us to modern-day Pitcairn to discover what life is like there for descendants of the original mutineers. He intertwines that story with the story of the mutiny itself, how the mutineers ended up on Pitcairn, and in most cases, their violent ends. This is fascinating narrative nonfiction.

Many readers will be familiar with this saga from the three books written by Nordhoff and Hall starting in 1932. These are Mutiny on the Bounty, followed by Men Against the Sea, and Pitcairn Island which was based on the aftermath of the mutiny. Many consider them the greatest sea stories ever told. Then there were the movie versions starring Clark Gable (1935) and Marlon Brando (1962) both playing Fletcher Christian the leading mutineer. There is also The Bounty movie(1984) with Mel Gibson. I read all three of the exciting and interesting books years ago and notice that they are now classified under historical fiction. I thought I knew the story, but now realize I only knew the outline of the facts based on some documented reports and embellished with speculation.

Renowned travel writer, Brandon Presser, has done an impressive and masterful job researching gaps in all three stories. He managed to access documents and court testimony available at the time and even visited the remote Pitcairn Island in 2018. This was at the time the home of 48 descendants of the Bounty mutiny. The island could be reached only 4 times a year by cargo supply freighter. It is a very tiny, rocky island with tall cliffs preventing an easy landing. He interviewed the people and saw documents previously uncovered. A year later he spent time on Norfolk Island where some of the Pitcairn Islanders were later settled by the British because Pitcairn was too small to sustain their growing numbers.

The author's time on Pitcairn does not seem entirely pleasant. They put on a friendly or distant face to the visitor, but he felt they were holding back on revealing dark episodes in their history. He divided his time living in the homes of two families and sensed jealousy, rivalry, and greed. They had been converted to the strict rules of the Seven Day Adventist religion but there was an undercurrent of immorality and entitlement from the past. There was little privacy, as their homes lacked doors, and he was beset by biting insects. There was very little communication with the outside world, and electricity was turned off every night at 10 pm.

Presser's book is aimed at filling in blanks in the island's dark, brutal past and adding new facts from his vast and impeccable research. It adds to the history of the people and events during the mutiny and life on the island that was unmapped and unknown at the time. His accounts of the mutiny and its aftermath are interspersed with accounts of his stay on Pitcairn while awaiting the next cargo ship for his return. He has added some very helpful maps, lists of the people on the Bounty, those major players in the mutiny, and those who settled on Pitcairn after they fled to hide from British justice. Also included are the names of Polynesians who accompanied them to Pitcairn. He includes pages of notes on his research and an extensive bibliography.

A brief summary; The mutiny occurred in 1790-91 when Fletcher Christian and a group of his followers seized the ship bound to transport breadfruit to Jamaica. The Captain, William Bligh, and eighteen followers were forced overboard into a 23-foot open boat. Their 3,600-mile journey to the Dutch East Indies is one of the greatest feats of endurance and courage in maritime history.

In the meantime, the mutineers had previously found brides in Tahiti. They returned to Tahiti and another Polynesian island and picked up more women and men in their search for an uninhabited island and hide from British justice. Some of the young women were duped into believing they would return home after a sea voyage, but in fact, a few were kidnapped. After many months at sea, they found the small island of Pitcairn where they decided to remain. At the time of arrival, there were 9 British men, 6 Polynesian men, and 12 women. No one knew what became of the Bounty until 1808 when a British ship encountered the inhabitants of Pitcairn. They found only one remaining British man, no Polynesian men, four women, and 24 children. What had happened to the 27 people who had made Pitcairn their home? An unbelievable story was uncovered, one of treachery, lust, greed, and vicious savagery.

In the year 2000, there were accusations of rape and sexual abuse, and underage sex laid against 13 men, seven still living on Pitcairn and the rest now residing on Norfolk Island. The mayor of Pitcairn was among the accused. he also worked as the dentist and held several other positions. The British held trials and most went to jail. It showed that under the strict religious rules adhered to by the islanders, a sense of depravity remained, perhaps from the free sexual norms their ancestors encountered on visits to Tahiti.

This book should be of interest to historians, people fascinated with remote places and culture, and readers of The Mutiny on the Bounty and other sea adventures.
Many thanks to NetGalley and Perseus Books/Public Affairs for this informative, thrilling, and well-researched ARC.

I enjoyed this book. It does a lot of things well. The story is interesting and well-paced. The cast of characters at the beginning is very helpful as the story spans 200 years. Also useful are the maps, as the story encompasses a vast area. The author’s journey is interesting and I usually enjoy these insights. The only aspect I did not enjoy was the at-times literary style, as opposed to the more conversational tone I prefer. This book is well-worth reading for history buffs. Thank you to Netgalley and Perseus Books, PublicAffairs for the advance reader copy.