Valerio Evangelisti
Tortuga

THE REVIEW

An exotic and truly delightful vacation is what Valerio Evangelisti indulged in, leaving behind the inquisitor Eymerich who made him famous and the Mexican revolution to which he dedicated a trilogy of novels, to dive and immerse us into the fascinating and rough world of pirates, those who dominated the Caribbean Sea for centuries, launching their attacks from the legendary island of Tortuga, which indeed gives the title to his latest work.

As is usual for him, the author weaves his plot, starting from a rigorous historical reconstruction that frames the daring feats of the corsairs in the context of the power struggles between the great powers of the era: Spain, France, and England.

And bringing to the stage a crowd of characters painted with bold strokes and loaded with ambiguity, as if with their cruelty, their cynicism, their loyalty to the rules governing boarding and massacres, betrayals, and acts of rebellion, he called them to embody the endless dispute between good and evil, reason and obsession, which is the strong flavor of all his novels. In the chorus stands out the figure of a former Portuguese Jesuit, who, forced to join the adventurers of Tortuga, mirrors himself for the first time in the abysses of horror, passion, and his own infamy.

In short, in this "Tortuga" there are all the necessary ingredients that will delight all fans of the genre while for those who have never read a work by Evangelisti, this is definitely an excellent starting point.