The Far Land: 200 Years of Murder, Mania, and Mutiny in the South Pacific

by Brandon Presser

Overview

For fans of The Wager and Mutiny on the Bounty comes a thrilling true tale of power, obsession, and betrayal at the edge of the world.

In 1808, an American merchant ship happened upon an uncharted island in the South Pacific and unwittingly solved the biggest nautical mystery of the era: the whereabouts of a band of fugitives who, after seizing their vessel, had disappeared into the night with their Tahitian companions. 
 
Pitcairn Island was the perfect hideaway from British authorities, but after nearly two decades of isolation its secret society had devolved into a tribalistic hellscape; a real-life Lord of the Flies, rife with depravity and deception.
 
Seven generations later, the island’s diabolical past still looms over its 48 residents; descendants of the original mutineers, marooned like modern castaways. Only a rusty cargo ship connects Pitcairn with the rest of the world, just four times a year.  
 
In 2018, Brandon Presser rode the freighter to live among its present-day families; two clans bound by circumstance and secrets. While on the island, he pieced together Pitcairn’s full story: an operatic saga that holds all who have visited in its mortal clutch—even the author. 
 
Told through vivid historical and personal narrative, The Far Land goes beyond the infamous Mutiny on the Bounty, offering an unprecedented glimpse at life on the fringes of civilization, and how, perhaps, it’s not so different from our own. 

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781541758582
Publisher:	PublicAffairs
Publication date:	03/12/2024
Pages:	352
Sales rank:	151,663
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.10(h) x 1.10(d)

About the Author

Brandon Presser was born in Ottawa, Canada, and has lived in Paris, Tokyo, and New York City. Called a “rough-and-tough adventurer” by Entertainment Weekly, he has visited over 130 countries, and his travel writing has been featured in numerous publications including Bloomberg, Harper’s Bazaar, Condé Nast Traveler and Lonely Planet. He holds a bachelor’s degree from Harvard University.
 

Table of Contents

Author's Note ix

Cast of Characters xi

Maps xvi

1 Turn On the Quiet 1

2 The Strangest Hello 5

3 Artocarpus Incisa 18

4 Discovery in the Age of the Superstore 32

5 A Score of Worlds 36

6 The Three Legs of Man 50

7 The Last Grande Dame of Tahiti 72

8 Mutiny on the Bounty 84

9 The Backwater Emissary 92

10 The Geometry of Solitude 105

11 The Fallout Zone 114

12 The Quiet 121

13 The Museum People 138

14 The Devil's Workshop 153

15 Pandora's Box 163

16 Dreadfruit 175

17 Portrait of a Family 184

18 Hunting Pigs 191

19 An Eye for an Eye 199

20 A Spider's Progress 207

21 The Book of Fear 215

22 Down Rope 223

23 Time, Chance, and Death 231

24 Far from Help 239

25 Bury the Hatchet 248

26 Children of Castaways 254

27 The Strangest Bonjour 259

28 Austerity 263

Epilogue: Turn Off the Quiet 271

Acknowledgments 279

Notes on References 281

Select Bibliography 301

Index 309

Editorial Reviews

An expertly reported account of one of the biggest nautical mysteries of the 18th century. Presser combines his own experiences on Pitcairn… with the captivating retelling of the true story.”—Condé Nast Traveler

“The Far Land swells in the cause and effect of actions of passion. Brandon Presser's fascinating narrative of the relentless consequences of the Bounty mutineers asks: were they brave or damned? They lived so very troubled ever after. You can’t make this stuff up!”—Tom Hanks

"Meticulously researched…Armchair adventurers will appreciate the author’s sharp and sympathetic eye, showing us the mechanics of a truly remote civilization. Presser’s detailed account provides a sense of authority to a story too bizarre to be anything but true.”—Kirkus Reviews

“A highly accomplished travel writer, Brandon Presser's The Far Land hits a lot of my pleasure centers: remote islands, then-and-now non-fiction, historical mysteries and forthright travelogues. The first night I started reading, I dreamed about Pitcairn Island.”—Maggie Shipstead, New York Times bestselling author of Great Circle

“Brandon Presser moves far beyond the Mutiny on the Bounty to the devastating tale of the Pitcairn Island settlement, a real-life Lord of the Flies tragedy. As Brandon finds when he makes a protracted visit to the island, it’s a story still unwinding and a definite reminder that island and paradise are two words which often don’t go together. It’s a tale which seamlessly blends his new take on the mutiny and its aftermath with his own experiences on Pitcairn today.”—Tony Wheeler, co-founder, Lonely Planet

“Presser debuts with a fascinating account of what happened after the HMS Bounty mutineers settled on the remote South Pacific island of Pitcairn in 1790. [He] expertly intertwines the historical and contemporary elements of the story and brings Pitcairn’s unusual culture to vibrant life. Readers will have a tough time putting this one down.”—Publishers Weekly

“It’s easy to assume that nothing new could be unearthed or written about [the Bounty]. But in his debut book, travel journalist Brandon Presser does exactly that, and brilliantly… [He] has managed to create a fact-based book that reads as grippingly as any thriller…an incredible, unforgettable tale.”—BookPage, *starred review*

“The Far Land uncovers the almost unbelievable true story of Pitcairn Island, while taking readers on an exciting journey to one of the most remote communities in the world… Presser excels at depicting the strangeness, but his novelistic account of what happened to the original colonists is stranger and bloodier—and unforgettable in its shocking details… Lord of the Flies pales in comparison.”—Shelf Awareness

“A mash-up of an 18th-century adventure novel and the darkest episode of ‘Law & Order: Special Victims Unit’ imaginable.”—New York Times Book Review

“Riveting and obsessively researched."—Bloomberg

“Sometimes, the greatest adventure doesn't require packing a suitcase… I gasped with Presser as he unveiled truths about settling of the island, and I wandered along with him as he discovered both the beauty and the complexity of that island today.”—Boston Herald

“Through his modern retelling and examination of the Bounty’s history, Presser creates a temporal bridge that spans hundreds of years and masterfully connects the island’s violent past to its tumultuous present.”—Afar

“[A] meticulously researched page turner that marries adventure stories with crime cliffhangers. Travelers will especially enjoy the colorful descriptions of Tahiti's culture and customs. Presser's eloquent writing and masterful storytelling will capture you from the very first sentence until the last.”—Travel + Leisure

From the Publisher

02/07/2022

Travel writer Presser debuts with a fascinating account of what happened after the HMS Bounty mutineers and their Tahitian companions settled on the remote South Pacific island of Pitcairn in 1790. Interwoven with this dramatic history is Presser’s chronicle of his 2018 visit to Pitcairn to meet the island’s 48 inhabitants, most of them descendants of the mutineers. Drawn to Pitcairn in part because its “punishing verticality” made it so inaccessible, the fugitives kept their whereabouts hidden for 18 years. Presser focuses on their efforts to establish a settlement and the frightening ways their colony devolved through infighting, drunken rages, and a revolt by the Polynesians, who were treated like slaves. By the fourth year on Pitcairn, most of the Bounty mutineers were dead, Presser notes. Arriving in 2018 via the island’s only link to the outside world—a cargo ship that visits four times a year—Presser finds two warring clans bound together by the island’s “widespread legacy of sexual misconduct.” Though he occasionally veers into melodrama, Presser expertly intertwines the historical and contemporary elements of the story and brings Pitcairn’s unusual culture to vibrant life. Readers will have a tough time putting this one down. (Mar.)

Publishers Weekly

★ 06/01/2022

Presser, a journalist and adventurer, writes about his visit to Pitcairn Island in the South Pacific, one of the most isolated places on earth. Its topography does not allow for an airstrip; a freighter visits once every 3 months; the population is 48. The island is notable worldwide because of the 1789 Bounty mutiny. Some of the crew put Captain Bly and others into a small boat and set them adrift. The mutineers sailed away in the Bounty and found the Pitcairn—a perfect place to hide. Presser alternates tales of his experiences on the island with a history of the crew of the Bounty, how they came to be in the South Pacific, the events that led to the mutiny, the search for a secluded island where they would be safe from capture, and the island mania that almost destroyed the settlement. The work is based on extensive research and interviews with the local residents, some of whom are likely descendants of the mutineers. It is well read by Steve Quinn, who provides all the appropriate nuances. VERDICT Readers of history will enjoy; highly recommended.—Joanna M. Burkhardt

Library Journal - Audio

01/01/2022

On April 28th, 1789, somewhere near the island of Tofua in the south Pacific, Fletcher Christian led a bloodless mutiny aboard the HMS Bounty. Versions of what happened on that fateful night have long taken root in the popular imagination, thanks in no small part to films starring Clark Gable and Marlon Brando. But far less has been told about what came next for the mutineers, who were not seen again until 1808 when American captain Mayhew Folger stumbled upon tiny Pitcairn Island where the mutineers had been laying low from the Royal Navy. With painstaking detail, travel writer Presser tells the incredible story of Pitcairn and the people who have lived there since 1789. The narrative alternates between the history of the mutineers' violent and chaotic settlement of this "tiny rock" and an account of the month Presser spent living among the 50 or so inhabitants who call it home today. Nearly all Pitcairn Islanders are direct descendants of the mutineers and their Tahitian consorts; as Presser learns, they have yet to escape their ancestors' legacy. VERDICT Presser does an able job blending Pitcairn Island's dark present with its darker past. Travel enthusiasts and armchair explorers will find a lot to like here.—Colin Chappell

Library Journal

2021-10-29
A South Pacific tale of “tribalism, trauma, psychopathy, paranoia, and survival in the bleakest of conditions.”

After numerous books and films, the story of the 1789 mutiny on the British navy ship Bountyis fairly well known—the Hollywood version, at least. Fletcher Christian led a group to overthrow the tyrannical Capt. Bligh and then sail into the South Pacific sunset. However, according to this meticulously researched book, that was far from the end of the adventure. The mutiny was just the prologue, writes Presser, a travel writer who has visited more than 130 countries; the real story involves what happened to the mutineers later. Eventually, they reached the daunting Pitcairn Island, one of the most remote islands in the world. Leading a mixed bag of sailors, Tahitian men, and Tahitian women that the Englishmen had taken as partners, Fletcher pronounced the island perfect for a self-sustaining, peaceful, and democratic minisociety. Of course, all did not go as planned. Some of the ex-sailors wanted a Caribbean-style feudal system and treated the Tahitian men as slaves and the women as pieces of a rotating harem. Inevitably, there was an outbreak of violence, although after several cycles of murder and retribution, it burned itself out and a measure of peace was reestablished. Eighteen years after the initial landing, another ship chanced upon them. By that time, there was a growing population of offspring—so many that some eventually moved to another island. Presser’s extensive research included “hundreds of resources from old captains’ logs to newspaper clippings to the other tomes penned by writers who have similarly descended down into the darkness of Pitcairn. He also lived there for several months, and he found the people to be tough yet also gossipy and obsessive. Armchair adventurers will appreciate the author’s sharp and sympathetic eye, showing us the mechanics of a truly remote civilization.

Presser’s detailed account provides a sense of authority to a story too bizarre to be anything but true.

Kirkus Reviews