Save Our Souls: The True Story of a Castaway Family, Treachery, and Murder

In this rousing history, novelist Pearl (The Taking of Jemima Boone) recounts a 19th-century family’s shipwreck on a tiny Pacific Island. In 1887, Irish ship captain Frederick Walker set sail from Hong Kong with his wife and their three teenage sons on board a schooner fishing for sharks in the Pacific. The ship left the mainland in October of that year, but in February 1888, it crashed into a reef during a series of powerful storms. In lifeboats, the crew reached nearby Sand Island—a small, barren patch of land—kicking off a year of harrowing struggle. Shortly after the wreck, the Walkers and their shipmates discovered a hut on the island inhabited by Danish castaway Hans Jorgensen. While Jorgensen and his wilderness expertise were initially welcomed, a series of “rage-filled outbursts” quickly made the Walkers wary. Gradually, they learned that Jorgensen was intentionally marooned by another ship after committing murder. Pearl paces the account like a thriller as he details Jorgensen’s multiple crimes and how the Walkers managed to cohabitate with him until, in 1889, a passing ship rescued them. This real-life Swiss Family Robinson will keep readers up all night. Agent: Suzanne Gluck, WME. (Jan.)