Skeletons On The Zahara

Oct 27, 2024 2:20 AM

Author:Dean King

The western Sahara is a baking hot and desolate place, home only to nomads and their camels, and to locusts, snails and thorny scrub. On 28 August 1815 the US brig Commerce was dashed against Mauritania's Cape Bojador and lost, although through bravery and quick thinking the ship's captain, James Riley, managed to lead all of his crew to safety.

What followed was an extraordinary and desperate battle for survival in the face of human hostility, hunger, dehydration and despair, as the crew were captured, robbed and enslaved. They were reduced to drinking urine (their own and the camels'), flayed by the sun, crippled by walking miles across burning stones and sand. Over time James Riley and Sidi Hamet, slave and captor, came to recognise in each other men worthy of respect... Soon the ransom not only of Riley himself but also of a handful of his crew suddenly seemed possible. But Sidi Hamet had enemies of his own, and to reach safety the sailors had to overcome not only the desert but also the greed and anger of those who would keep them in captivity. Skeletons on the Zahara is a thrilling true story of shipwreck, adventure, and the limits of man.

Reviews

Known for his biography of the elusive Patrick O'Brian...Dean King has emerged from the great man's shadow with a compelling work in his own right... Once ashore, King's narrative, like Riley's leadership, grows in stature and certaintly... As King notes, the understanding, respect and compassion between these representatives of the Christian and Muslim worlds offers a timely example in our own troubled age.

—— Sunday Times

Genuinely gripping, full of twists and turns of fate ... mesmerising ... The torturous journey, with parched tongues and aching bones, in constant fear of bandits who might capture and enslave them, is described in unsparing detail ... The game of bluff and double bluff kept the crewmen's lives on a knife-edge. If you want to know the ending, the Hollywood movie can't be too far behind.

—— Daily Mail

Dean King has brought to life one of the great, true-life adventure stories - a riveting tale of suffering and redemption

—— Nathaniel Philbrick

A lovingly detailed verbal map... This is vivid and highly scrupulous autobiographical reportage

—— Financial Times

Next volume, please

—— Sunday Times

Exemplary in its restraint, scrupulousness and empathy, it is also beautifully written

—— Roy Foster, Books of the Year , Times Literary Supplement

'A sad but spellbinding story, told with artistic tact and a humane concern for all caught up in the terrible event. The Burning of Bridget Cleary draws on oral tradition, reportage, popular culture and high literature to show how the past may persist in the present

—— Declan Kiberd

The story of the killing of Bridget Cleary is so brilliantly researched and narrated that it becomes a parable of the cultural and political relationship between Ireland and Britain at the end of the last century... A classic account

—— Seamus Deane

'The subhead - "a true tale of love, murder and survival in the Amazon" - sets the mood for this adventure and Whitaker delivers in spades. The publishers could have added "intrigue, heartache and girl power in 18th century Peru" and still undersold the story...there has to be a movie in it!'

—— WEEKEND AUSTRALIAN

'Riveting...This is really two books in one, suited for fans of Dava Sobel's bestseller Longitude who also appreciate a dash of romance and suspense in their historical scientific fare'

—— ATLANTA JOURNAL

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