The Wreck of the Batavia and Prosper by Simon Leys

Book Description

Secondhand. Good condition. Ex library copy with no external stickers. Stamps on inside pages. Partial date due slip now covered with blank ex libris bookplate sticker. Wear to book corners and edges, particularly at spine. Dust jacket has light creasing at edges and spine. Body text and binding are still very good.

In 1629, the ship Batavia, pride of the Dutch East India Company, was wrecked on the edge of a coral archipelago, some 50 miles from the western coast of the Australian continent. Leys tells of how the survivors became victims of a visionary psychopath, who organised a methodical massacre of this hapless community.

Also included is Prosper, recalling the summer when Leys joined the crew of a tuna-fishing boat from Brittany, one of the last boats still working under sail.