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by Rachel Rueckert
Set during the Golden Age of Pirates, this luminous novel of historical fiction based on the real experiences of the era's most fascinating pirates, Anne Bonny and Mary Read, upends all stereotypes of female pirates and excavates these two figures out of the male gaze of history in a story of passion, fierce female friendships, and women confronting the impossible.
1721, Spanish Town, Jamaica. Captured, convicted, and pregnant, twenty-three-year-old Anne Bonny faces the gallows. When writer Captain Charles Johnson enters the garrison, she strikes a deal: she'll tell this opportunistic fool about her life if he sends a doctor to her friend, Mary Read, who's battling prison fever in isolation.
For Anne and Mary, life at sea offers a freedom that few women ever know. Born to an Irish gentleman and his maid, Anne leaves her beloved County Cork behind when her family emigrates to South Carolina to escape prejudice. Cornered in a crisis, she flees, making a bitter bargain for safe passage to the Bahamas.
Across the Atlantic in England, Mary confronts her own limitations as an illegitimate daughter. Sneaking into a merchant crew, she disguises herself as a cabin boy, working harder than the men to avoid scrutiny. But when war breaks out, sending Mary into the cavalry, she meets a challenge even she might not rival.
When their paths collide in Nassau, a notorious pirate den, Anne and Mary find kinship and a new life aboard the infamousRevenge, the fastest ship in the Caribbean. Yet with an ambitious governor out for blood, every raid brings more risk. And from the high seas to the depths of a Jamaican prison, Anne and Mary must navigate impossible choices, each determined to taste freedom again.
"An exciting, immersive tale about two legendary women, their courage, and the circumstances that bound them together in infamy. It's no easy task to fictionalize historical figures as widely mythologized as Read and Bonny, but Rueckert does it with aplomb." —Rita Chang-Eppig, author of Deep as the Sky, Red as the Sea
"This story is based on the real lives of Mary Read and Anne Bonny, two female pirates determined to choose their own adventure in a society that seems equally determined to reduce them to a single narrative. Though set in the eighteenth century, this novel feels eerily relevant to the situation we find ourselves in today; while the outfits and weapons may have changed over the last three hundred years, women's autonomy still hangs in the balance. The Determined is a powerful example of two women who, armed with daggers, grit, ingenuity, and yes, tenderness, refuse to surrender their right to freedom." —Lisa Van Orman Hadley, author of Irreversible Things
"Immersive, thrilling, and steeped in emotional complexity, The Determined is a triumph of historical research and heart, transporting the reader into the lives of the infamous Anne Bonny and Mary Read. Rueckert paints a nuanced portrait of two complicated women in a world that opposes them at every opportunity. Both heartwarming and gut-wrenching in turns, this novel brings a fresh and original perspective on two of history's most recognized female pirates." —Briony Cameron, author of The Ballad of Jacquotte Delahaye
This information about The Determined was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Rachel Rueckert is an award-winning writer, editor, and teacher who holds an MFA from Columbia University and an M.Ed. from Boston University. On her first visit to Provincetown, Massachusetts, she learned about the true story of Anne Bonny, Mary Read and Samuel Bellamy and vowed to write their story, returning to Cape Cod again and again over the years for research and freedom in the shape of solace.If the Tide Turns is her debut novel. She splits her time between Salt Lake City and Cambridge, Massachusetts and can be found online at RachelRueckert.com.
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