The New World

Andrew Motion picks up where R. L. Stevenson left off, taking us on a fantastic adventure from the shores of Treasure Island to the mysterious New World...Jim and Natty are shipwrecked on the coast of Texas, blown off course on their way home from Treasure Island.

But they have stolen something they should have left well alone, something that will haunt them until what was taken has been returned...On their journey they encounter Native American tribes, a wandering group of European Circus performers, deracinated warriors, eccentric pioneers, some landscapes of great serenity and others of terrible savagery, until, at last, they reach the mighty Mississippi.

The New World is an adventure story, a race across America, a Western, a travelogue, a love story and a lament for an indigenous culture in the years before its destruction. Andrew Motion has achieved that singular thing - a story that is both very moving and very exciting, and always written with a remarkable clear beauty.