They're Cows, We're Pigs

A dark, thought-provoking adventure that 'artfully evokes the blood-soaked reality of 17th-century pirates' (Entertainment Weekly).This 'wryly humorous, satiric, and often macabre novel' (Library Journal) follows Jean Smeeks, a Flemish thirteen-year-old who signs up as an indentured servant with the French West Indies Company, but instead winds up a slave on the notorious island of Tortuga. Over time, he learns the arts of herbal medicine and surgery-a skill that allows him to join a band of Caribbean pirates. Contrasting Jean's romantic pull toward the 'Brethren of the Coast'-an all-male society pursuing socialist, anti-colonialist ideals-with the brutal reality of their lawless existence, They're Cows, We're Pigs is a 'unique and memorable' novel whose 'pirate world leaves you as a good book should: thinking' (The Boston Herald).