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THE LAST BOOKANEER
by Matthew Pearl
Penguin, April 2015
400 pages
$26.95
ISBN: 1594204926


Buy in the UK | Buy in Canada

Over the past several decades, the straightforward adventure story has been put on the back burner and been incorporated into other genres such as science-fiction and fantasy. Putting aside select authors like Clive Cussler, adventure stories are most likely to be found in the hands of junior high students if they are found anywhere—and its no coincidence that many of those stories are heavily influenced by the work of Robert Louis Stevenson, author of great adventure tales like TREASURE ISLAND and KIDNAPPED. With THE LAST BOOKANEER, Matthew Pearl (THE DANTE CLUB, THE POE SHADOW) explores the last days of the famed adventure author, now the target of a group of literary pirates.

In the late nineteenth century, the publishing industry found itself in a legal gray area that led to great disarray in the industry. Governments on both sides of the Atlantic would only grant copyright protection to their own authors and publishers, which led to the rise of literary agents and thieves called "bookaneers" who would obtain non-copyrighted manuscripts and sell them to the highest bidder. By 1890, American and British governments were on the brink of inking a copyright agreement that would all but end the already dying bookaneer profession, while the remaining bookaneers saw an opportunity for one great last heist.

Hearing of famed Scottish author Robert Louis Stevenson holed up in Samoa, ailing while finishing his final book, famed bookaneer Pen Davenport and his protégé, young bookseller Edgar Fergins, set sail to Samoa to snatch up Stevenson's final masterpiece before the new treaty comes into effect. When they arrive they find that the famed author has installed himself firmly in the local culture and is known only as "Tusitala" on the island. Fergins and Davenport quickly find themselves in Stevenson's orbit, only to realize that they are not the only bookaneers on the island attempting one last literary coup.

THE LAST BOOKANEER sports a framing device that seems perfunctory and extraneous, but manages to pay off by the end. While speculative in nature (literary thieves like these no doubt existed due to the gap in copyright, though perhaps not in the way presented here), this is clearly a thoroughly researched work and Pearl's reputation for historical fiction is excellent. Luckily, the research mainly enhances the novel rather than slowing it down; its devotion to its time period makes it read like a work of the late nineteenth century, so it's unlikely to be read rapidly.

The bookaneers are complex, conflicted, and surprisingly enough, sentimental characters who are more than glorified thieves. A scene late in the book when Stevenson comes to realize that some of his fellow islanders are there only to steal his last manuscript is among the novel's most compelling in revealing how damaging literary thieves were to authors of the time. While Pearl does not spend time drawing obvious parallels to the current day, an aware reader will not have a difficult time connecting the literary thieves of yesteryear to contemporary intellectual property disputes. For Pearl, this is a return to his earlier literary subject matter after a departure in 2012's THE TECHNOLOGISTS, and it's a welcome one. This is a strong historical mystery, but most of all, it is an excellent piece of fiction that is sure to please book lovers of all persuasions. Most refreshing at all, is its homage to the great adventure stories that Robert Louis Stevenson perfected in the nineteenth century, a genre in sore need of a revival.

§ Ben Neal is a librarian who likes to fancy himself an amateur writer, humorist, detective, and coffee connoisseur in his spare time. He can be reached at beneneal@indiana.edu.

Reviewed by Ben Neal, June 2015

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