Overview

Bestselling author of 1861: The Civil War Awakening (Knopf / Vintage). Finalist for the LA Times Book Prize in History. Book of the Year at the History Book Club. Listed among the best books of the year by the New York Times, The Atlantic, Kirkus Reviews, Slate, Amazon, and Barnes & Noble. Audiobook was the winner of an Audie award for best history title. Apart from John Allen Chau — the young missionary adventurer who did not live to tell the tale — Adam Goodheart is the only American known to have visited North Sentinel Island. Publication will coincide with the release of a National Geographic documentary, The Mission. It tells the story of North Sentinel Island and John Allen Chau's fatal visit there. Adam is interviewed in the film and has been asked by the filmmakers to take part in the documentary's promotion. North Sentinel has what might be called a worldwide fan base. Amidst a global culture of hyperconnectivity, the bow-and-arrow-wielding Sentinelese are portrayed as the lone holdouts. Especially since the death Chau in 2018, millions of people around the world have been fascinated with this remote tribe. A few statistics: * YouTube videos about North Sentinel Island have garnered a cumulative total of well over 100 million views. * Hundreds of posts about North Sentinel Island on Twitter, Instagram, Reddit and Quora have drawn millions of views, comments, and likes. A recent Instagram post drew over 256,000 likes. * Interest has not stopped since John Chau’s death. A post about Chau and the Sentinelese on Quora just two weeks ago has already garnered over 100,000 views. * The death of John Allen Chau drew intense press coverage in almost every major news outlet. For instance, the New York Times ran seven stories about the incident in just a week, including a front-page feature. Yet there has never been any book published about North Sentinel Island. The Last Island will be the first. Illustrated with 34 photos and maps.

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9781567926828

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Reviews

“Adam Goodheart’s The Last Island thrills you from the beginning with an 18th century-style tale of adventure set in the present day. But it moves into a deeper reflection on a small tribe and its ancient culture standing alone in a globalized modern world. This book is both exciting and important—an adventure worth contemplating.” —Mark Kurlansky, author of Cod: A Biography of the Fish that Changed the World “A thrilling book that will leave you contemplating the concept of civilization.“ —Kirkus, starred review “Fascinating and heartbreaking....In a sense, the book is a meditation on what it means to be civilised, to acknowledge the humanity of those who live differently.” —India Today “The Last Island has the elegance of a spiraling seashell. In the fascinating tale of one small island caught in the mesh of modern imperialism and technology, Adam Goodheart has crafted a narrative that winds outward from a personal obsession to a broad interrogation about the value and purpose of human contact. This beguiling book holds within it the echo of vast historical tides.” —Maya Jasanoff, author of The Dawn Watch: Joseph Conrad in a Global World “Adam Goodheart takes us on a fascinating journey to a place that has so far eluded the devious entanglements of our hyperconnected world: North Sentinel Island at the outer edge of the Bay of Bengal. Part travelogue, part history, The Last Island is full of teasing enticements and disturbing revelations, a mesmerizing chronicle of a people at the frayed edge of so-called civilization.” —Nathaniel Philbrick, author of In the Heart of the Sea, Mayflower, and Travels with George “Adam Goodheart has achieved something most of us can only dream of: finding a place where few of his compatriots have ever been. I wish I had been with him on the journey, but this gracefully written book is the next best thing.” —Adam Hochschild, author of King Leopold's Ghost: A Story of Greed, Terror and Heroism in Colonial Africa “In a world that is fully mapped, where distances are not what they used to be, Adam Goodheart’s genius lies in his ability to take us back centuries. The Last Island awakened in me a primordial sense of wonder.” —Aatish Taseer, author of The Twice-Born: Life and Death on the Ganges

Advance praise for The Last Island “Adam Goodheart has achieved something most of us can only dream of: finding a place where few of his compatriots have ever been. I wish I had been with him on the journey, but this gracefully written book is the next best thing.” —Adam Hochschild, author of King Leopold's Ghost: A Story of Greed, Terror and Heroism in Colonial Africa “In a world that is fully mapped, where distances are not what they used to be, Adam Goodheart’s genius lies in his ability to take us back centuries. The Last Island awakened in me a primordial sense of wonder.” —Aatish Taseer, author of The Twice-Born: Life and Death on the Ganges

“The Last Island has the elegance of a spiraling seashell. In the fascinating tale of one small island caught in the mesh of modern imperialism and technology, Adam Goodheart has crafted a narrative that winds outward from a personal obsession to a broad interrogation about the value and purpose of human contact. This beguiling book holds within it the echo of vast historical tides.” —Maya Jasanoff, author of The Dawn Watch: Joseph Conrad in a Global World “Adam Goodheart takes us on a fascinating journey to a place that has so far eluded the devious entanglements of our hyperconnected world: North Sentinel Island at the outer edge of the Bay of Bengal. Part travelogue, part history, The Last Island is full of teasing enticements and disturbing revelations, a mesmerizing chronicle of a people at the frayed edge of so-called civilization.” —Nathaniel Philbrick, author of In the Heart of the Sea, Mayflower, and Travels with George “Adam Goodheart has achieved something most of us can only dream of: finding a place where few of his compatriots have ever been. I wish I had been with him on the journey, but this gracefully written book is the next best thing.” —Adam Hochschild, author of King Leopold's Ghost: A Story of Greed, Terror and Heroism in Colonial Africa “In a world that is fully mapped, where distances are not what they used to be, Adam Goodheart’s genius lies in his ability to take us back centuries. The Last Island awakened in me a primordial sense of wonder.” —Aatish Taseer, author of The Twice-Born: Life and Death on the Ganges

“Adam Goodheart’s The Last Island thrills you from the beginning with an eighteenth century tale of adventure set in the 21st century but moves to a deeper reflection on why small groups have to succumb to dominant civilizations and what is the value of assimilation. This book is both exciting and important—an adventure worth contemplating.” —Mark Kurlansky The Last Island has the elegance of a spiraling seashell. In the fascinating tale of one small island caught in the mesh of modern imperialism and technology, Adam Goodheart has crafted a narrative that winds outward from a personal obsession to a broad interrogation about the value and purpose of human contact. This beguiling book holds within it the echo of vast historical tides.” —Maya Jasanoff, author of The Dawn Watch: Joseph Conrad in a Global World “Adam Goodheart takes us on a fascinating journey to a place that has so far eluded the devious entanglements of our hyperconnected world: North Sentinel Island at the outer edge of the Bay of Bengal. Part travelogue, part history, The Last Island is full of teasing enticements and disturbing revelations, a mesmerizing chronicle of a people at the frayed edge of so-called civilization.” —Nathaniel Philbrick, author of In the Heart of the Sea, Mayflower, and Travels with George “Adam Goodheart has achieved something most of us can only dream of: finding a place where few of his compatriots have ever been. I wish I had been with him on the journey, but this gracefully written book is the next best thing.” —Adam Hochschild, author of King Leopold's Ghost: A Story of Greed, Terror and Heroism in Colonial Africa “In a world that is fully mapped, where distances are not what they used to be, Adam Goodheart’s genius lies in his ability to take us back centuries. The Last Island awakened in me a primordial sense of wonder.” —Aatish Taseer, author of The Twice-Born: Life and Death on the Ganges

Author Information

Adam Goodheart is a historian, essayist, journalist, and bestselling author of 1861: The Civil War Awakening. His articles have appeared in The Atlantic, The New York Times, National Geographic, and The American Scholar. Goodheart is the director of Washington College’s Starr Center for the Study of the American Experience. He lives in Washington, D.C., and on the Eastern Shore of Maryland.

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