The Ring of the Slave Prince

From one of Denmark's foremost writers, here is his most impressive book to date-a roguishly fantastic adventure story of piracy, slave owners, witch burning, shipwrecks, desert islands, and larger-than-life characters-the largest of which is fourteen-year-old Tom O'Connor, a poor, adventurous, charming liar who lives with his mother and half sister at a tavern on the island of Nevis in 1639. Good and evil, truth and lies, right and wrong tug at this unlikely hero when he rescues a slave from drowning, learns he is prince, loses him, travels the Southern Hemisphere in search of him, and finally brings him home to Cape Verde, hoping for a grand reward. But by the time Tom discovers that the prince is really a fisherman's son, the loss of reward doesn't matter-his adventures have brought him no use for greed, and as he says, "a reckless regard for other people's life and well-being." Translated from Danish by Tiina Nunnally.