It is 1792 and a group of English gentlemen is recruiting settlers for a new world. Anti-slavers, they share a shining vision of a free colony where all races and classes can live together in harmony. More than a hundred men, women and children set sail from London, bound for Murunda, an island off the west coast of Africa… At first, the island seems a paradise. Fruit hangs from the trees, the waters teem with fish, the local King is friendly. Some of the settlers set to work to built a settlement. Others prefer to laze and swim, to drink and dance at night. But then the rains begin to fall relentlessly, fever strikes, and violence reveals itself in this brave new world.

“A poignant story of ideals unravelling in the face of reality.”
Sunday Times

“Palmer has immense talent as a novelist… my only real complaint is that he does not write nearly enough.”
DJ Taylor