A dark, thought-provoking adventure that âartfully evokes the blood-soaked reality of 17th-century piratesâ (Entertainment Weekly). This âwryly humorous, satiric, and often macabre novelâ (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 surgeryâa skill that allows him to join a band of Caribbean pirates. Contrasting Jeanâs romantic pull toward the âBrethren of the Coastââan all-male society pursuing socialist, anti-colonialist idealsâwith the brutal reality of their lawless existence, Theyâre Cows, Weâre Pigs is a âunique and memorableâ novel whose âpirate world leaves you as a good book should: thinkingâ (The Boston Herald).
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