Alex Capus follows every step of Robert Louis Stevenson's last years, studying every clue left behind by the Scottish writer and reaching his own conclusion about the most dramatic turn in Stevenson's life: his decision to settle in Samoa, where the climate was poison for his already diseased lungs. When he arrived there in 1889, neither Stevenson nor his family particularly liked the Pacific island and wanted to stay for only a few days. Yet soon afterwards he changed his mind and, intriguingly, spent what little remained of his savings on a plot of land and began living there on a meagre income. Before long Stevenson set about building an opulent villa and lived out the rest of his days in splendour. What had happened? Capus asserts that Stevenson not only wrote the world-famous novel "Treasure Island" here but searched for the treasure himself and furthermore found it towards the end of his life, on a little island he could see from the peak of the mountain in Samoa where he settled.

"Beautifully rendered in John Brownjohn's translation . . . a] magnificent novel."--Giles Foden, author of "The Last King of Scotland"

"A war-torn farce worth waiting for."--"The Independent"

It is November 1913 and three German shipbuilders, led by master shipwright Anton Ruter, are ordered by Kaiser Wilhelm to dismantle a steam ship, send the parts to German East Africa, and reassemble it on Lake Tanganyika. But their aim of getting the job done and returning home quickly is soon eclipsed by the enchantment of the exotic landscape and the violent machinery of colonialism.

At the same time, Winston Churchill sends the eccentric Commander Geoffrey Spicer-Simson to transport two dilapidated and incongruously named gun-boats, "Mimi" and "Toutou," to the other side of the lake. When World War I breaks out, the Germans and British are facing each other, and the German shipbuilders reluctantly find themselves fighting under the unsympathetic Captain-Lieutenant Gustav von Zimmer. In the midst of the horrors of war, however, there are moments of great humor and pathos.

Alex Capus was born in 1961 and has published numerous works, including novels, collections of short stories, essays, and historical accounts, as well as translations of "A Confederacy of Dunces" by John Kennedy Toole and three novels by John Fante.

John Borwnjohn is a renowned literary translator. His work has won him critical acclaim and numerous awards on both sides of the Atlantic, including the Schlegel-Tieck Prize (three times), the US PEN, and the Helen and Kurt Wolff Prize.