The end of the 19th century, the twilight of sailing ships, and the picturesque islands of the South Pacific, are the setting for these history-laced adventures. Jon Rohner, a likeable sailor who lives on the edge of the law, tells his stories to Robert Louis Stevenson -- the famed author of such classics as Treasure Island and Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde -- who has settled on the Samoa islands and befriended Rohner. Through Rohner’s stories we are taken into a world full of excitement, action and drama: from his kidnapping a princess to prevent a war between two tribes; to a story about a man who fell in love with a cannibal queen, left his family and got tattooed over his whole body and face; to Rohner’s surviving a tsunami and volcano eruption. The stories -- Rohner’s adventures -- are seemingly in endless supply.

• TPB
  5/17/2021