The Kip brothers

One of Jules Verne's final novels, The Kip Brothers is part naval adventure, part crime thriller. Inspired by real-life events, it tells the story of a merchant ship on an ill-fated voyage around New Zealand in the late nineteenth century.

When a gang of roguish sailors are thwarted in their attempt to mutiny, they concoct a murderous scheme to evade justice and take revenge on the castaways who got the better of them. Karl and Peter Kip are a pair of honest brothers travelling home after the death of their father. Already the unfortunate victims of a near-fatal shipwreck, they now find themselves accused of an atrocious crime they could never have committed. Their upstanding natures seem no match for the devilish ploys of the seaman Vin Mod, a true maritime Moriarty. Will they be able to prove their innocence? If not, a life of hard labour in a brutal penal colony awaits.

Suspenseful and dramatic, The Kip Brothers is filled with vivid characters and fascinating historical details. This new translation retains the briskness and clarity of Verne's prose, making the gripping adventure story easily available to an English readership.