This “wise, richly imaginative and riotously entertaining” novel draws from the exploits of Elizabethan adventurer Sir Walter Raleigh (Publishers Weekly, starred review).
It’s 1618, and soldier, explorer, fortune hunter, and lover of Queen Elizabeth, Sir Walter Raleigh, is bitterly penning his memoirs aboard the Destiny. After unjustly languishing for fourteen years in the Tower of London for treason, he’s been released at the behest of King James—on one condition: that he finds gold in the New World. But the voyage is doomed as Raleigh contends with Spanish forces, mutiny, pirates, and disease, all under the shadow of the executioner’s blade awaiting him back home. All the while, Raleigh ruminates on his storied rise from humble origins into the Virgin Queen’s favor, courtly intrigues—and ultimately, her bed.
This thrilling novel of “grim power and evocative beauty” breathes life into the most dazzling yet enigmatic of Elizabethans; one who emerges from the pages of history and myth, full-blooded, passionate, and profoundly human (Kirkus Reviews).
