Unsurprisingly I really enjoyed this book. Look at the second drawing above to see why. Trondheim's drawing here is amazing, just the kind of thing I really like. He has spent lots of holidays on Bourbon Island or Reunion Island and you can tell from all the nature drawings. The book is about an ornithologist who comes to the island searching for the last dodo. With him comes his young assistant Raphael who is fascinated with the pirates who used to live on the island. They meet various ex pirates who have become plantation owners now or drunks, slaves, maroons (escaped slaves living in the mountains , a bit like the more well known maroons of Jamaica, but not as successful) and other people. It's quite a strange story about the end of piracy and the end of early freedoms on the island as it is becoming more strictly controlled by the government.
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