Publication Date: November 21, 2023
From New York Times bestselling author Katherine Howe comes a daring first-hand account of one young woman’s unbelievable adventure as one of the most terrifying sea rovers of all time.
In Boston, as the Golden Age of Piracy comes to a bloody close, Hannah Masury – bound out to service at a waterfront inn since childhood – is ready to take her life into her own hands. When a man is hanged for piracy in the town square and whispers of a treasure in the Caribbean spread, Hannah is forced to flee for her life, disguising herself as a cabin boy in the pitiless crew of the notorious pirate Edward “Ned” Low. To earn the freedom to choose a path for herself, Hannah must hunt down the treasure and change the tides.
Meanwhile, professor Marian Beresford pieces Hannah’s story together in 1930, seeing her own lack of freedom reflected back at her as she watches Hannah’s transformation. At the center of Hannah Masury’s account, however, lies a centuries-old mystery that Marian is determined to solve, just as Hannah may have been determined to take it to her grave.
A True Account tells the unforgettable story of two women in different worlds, both shattering the rules of their own society and daring to risk everything to go out on their own account.
An unclaimed treasure links two women centuries apart by a desire to make their way in the world.
Author Katherine Howe delivers a richly detailed dual-perspective storyline in A True Account. Part of the story is told from Hannah Masury’s first-person perspective and details her adventures disguised as a boy among pirates.
Interspersed throughout is the second storyline featuring Professor Marian Beresford, who, in 1930, learns about Hannah’s story. At the center is a mystery relating to an unclaimed treasure, an adventure that has an unexpected outcome for the hunters.
The story, as a whole, has an underlying theme of women daring to break barriers. In Hannah’s time, her adventures take her away from serving at an inn to traveling the sea. Meanwhile, Marian is struggling with her identity.
A True Account is billed as a pirate adventure, yet there are complex themes guiding the narrative.
Katherine Howe is a New York Times bestselling and award-winning historian and novelist. She lives and sails in New England with her family, where she is at work on her next novel.
