Reviews
In his latest maritime narrative, Dolin chronicles an early-19th-century calamity featuring the usual privation and acts of heroism but more than the usual bad behavior. Dolin maintains an interesting narrative of their 18 months alone on the barren subarctic Falklands. An entertaining castaway tale., An absorbing adventure that explores the dark shadows of instinct and self-preservation, and the hardships and stress that stretch the bonds of humanity. Fascinating reading., It would hardly be an exaggeration to say that Dolin's saga has as many twists and turns as a route through the mazy South Atlantic archipelago. ... Dolin does justice to the drama of it all ... without stinting on one of pleasures of reading 19th-century history: the wordsmithery of people high and low...The author of several previous books on such maritime topics as piracy and whaling, Dolin is an expert literary steersman., "Thanks to his exhaustive research and a flair for storytelling, Eric Jay Dolin has managed to turn out a long string of excellent books in this genre. "Left for Dead," with its many charts and illustrations, and wonderful descriptions of the Falkland Islands themselves, puts us right there in this strangely near - and yet still somehow far away.", A master of the maritime narrative, Dolin (Rebels at Sea, 2022) surfaces a submerged shipwreck story. . . . creating a work that will captivate a readership built from his many fans and all readers enamored of true tales of the high seas. , A deeply engrossing tale with a delightfully twisty plot...Anyone who read David Grann's The Wager with profit will relish this sprawling sea story., This stunning account of shifting fortunes is riven with tension on every page, as Dolin provides detailed descriptions of bickering and backstabbing, tricky nautical maneuvers, and desperate survival techniques. It's an edge-of-your-seat adventure., No one writes maritime history with as much passion and vibrancy as Eric Jay Dolin. Left For Dead transports us to the remote, wind-scoured Falkland Islands in the early nineteenth century and brings to life an unforgettable cast of characters: speculators, convicts, scallywags, sea captains, and captains of industry--driven by country, greed, and the will to survive at any cost. This is narrative history (and natural history) of the highest caliber. A riveting, rollicking read., A master of the maritime narrative, Dolin (Rebels at Sea, 2022) surfaces a submerged shipwreck story. . . . creating a work that will captivate a readership built from his many fans and all readers enamored of true tales of the high seas., Exciting and meticulously detailed book . . . . With twists and turns on nearly every page, Dolin details how the unlikely companions overcame great odds and adversity to survive the deadly winters in the Falkland Islands. Left for Dead is an incredible true story long overdue for exposure in the modern age, and Eric Jay Dolin does not disappoint., Left for Dead is a truly extraordinary story told in gripping fashion and vivid detail, but, and this is what makes it all so amazing, none of it is fiction; it all, every bit of it, actually happened., It's a tale with all the elements of a movie blockbuster: shipwreck, mutiny, greed and a desperate struggle for survival in a hostile environment. There is also high-minded altruism, persistent backstabbing, drunkenness and--as if a movie executive had insisted it could only help the box office--a noble dog.... Dolin's firm grasp of the 19th-century maritime world is undeniable.... This is a masterly account of a historical event., Left for Dead is a tale that unravels with intriguing complexity, offering surprising twists and turns...Dolin delivers an enthralling narrative that sheds light not just on the individuals involved but the societal reflections and consequences of their actions., Left for Dead is a truly extraordinary story told in gripping fashion and vivid detail, but--and this is what makes it all so amazing--none of it is fiction; it all, every bit of it, actually happened., Eric Jay Dolin's depiction of early 1800s seafaring is filled with as much adventure, intrigue, action, and colorful characters as any classic Hollywood movie. Surviving a thousand-mile ocean journey in a small boat is just one of several scintillating ingredients. Left for Dead is a true account that reads like a grizzled sailor's tall tale., A tale of intriguing complexity, with surprising twists and turns throughout, Left for Dead showcases individuals in wartime under great duress acting both nobly and atrociously, and offers a unique perspective on a pivotal era of in American maritime history., [G]ripping narrative... I could continue to praise this book, but I'll end this review by urging you not to waste another minute--buy this book. It is worth your time and money., In Left for Dead, a handful of sailors abandoned on a remote island by their mates more than two centuries ago is only the beginning. Eric Jay Dolin delivers surprise after surprise. With a plot worthy of the best seafaring fiction, Dolin's gripping narrative has the added fascination of being entirely true.
Synopsis
The true story of five castaways abandoned on the Falkland Islands during the War of 1812--a tale of treachery, shipwreck, isolation, and the desperate struggle for survival. In Left for Dead , Eric Jay Dolin--"one of today's finest writers about ships and the sea" ( American Heritage )--tells the true story of a wild and fateful encounter between an American sealing vessel, a shipwrecked British brig, and a British warship in the Falkland archipelago during the War of 1812. Fraught with misunderstandings and mistrust, the incident left three British sailors and two Americans, including the captain of the sealer, Charles H. Barnard, abandoned in the barren, windswept, and inhospitable Falklands for a year and a half. With deft narrative skill and unequaled knowledge of the very pith of the seafaring life, Dolin describes in vivid and harrowing detail the increasingly desperate existence of the castaways during their eighteen-month ordeal--an all-too-common fate in the Great Age of Sail. A tale of intriguing complexity, with surprising twists and turns throughout--involving greed, lying, bullying, a hostile takeover, stellar leadership, ingenuity, severe privation, endurance, banishment, the great value of a dog, the birth of a baby, a perilous thousand-mile open-ocean journey in a seventeen-foot boat, an improbable rescue mission, and legal battles over a dubious and disgraceful wartime prize-- Left for Dead shows individuals in wartime under great duress acting both nobly and atrociously, and offers a unique perspective on a pivotal era in American maritime history., In Left for Dead , Eric Jay Dolin--"one of today's finest writers about ships and the sea" ( American Heritage )--tells the true story of a wild and fateful encounter between an American sealing vessel, a shipwrecked British brig, and a British warship in the Falkland archipelago during the War of 1812. Fraught with misunderstandings and mistrust, the incident left three British sailors and two Americans, including the captain of the sealer, Charles H. Barnard, abandoned in the barren, windswept, and inhospitable Falklands for a year and a half. With deft narrative skill and unequaled knowledge of the very pith of the seafaring life, Dolin describes in vivid and harrowing detail the increasingly desperate existence of the castaways during their eighteen-month ordeal--an all-too-common fate in the Great Age of Sail. A tale of intriguing complexity, with surprising twists and turns throughout--involving greed, lying, bullying, a hostile takeover, stellar leadership, ingenuity, severe privation, endurance, banishment, the great value of a dog, the birth of a baby, a perilous thousand-mile open-ocean journey in a seventeen-foot boat, an improbable rescue mission, and legal battles over a dubious and disgraceful wartime prize-- Left for Dead shows individuals in wartime under great duress acting both nobly and atrociously, and offers a unique perspective on a pivotal era in American maritime history., The true story of five castaways abandoned on the Falkland Islands during the War of 1812--a tale of treachery, shipwreck, isolation, and the desperate struggle for survival.
