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"In the middle of the Caribbean, there sits a small island called Redonda. But what at first appears to be an uninhabited rock turns out to also be the site of a fragmented, fiercely contested kingdom that dates back more than a century--a kingdom of writers, with little in common besides their shared allegiance to the Redondan throne. Now, Michael Hingston has assembled this unbelievable true story for the first time. Drawing on a cast of characters that includes forgotten sci-fi novelists, alcoholic poets, vegetarian publishers, and Nobel Prize frontrunners, Try Not to Be Strange: The Curious History of The Kingdom of Redonda is a rollicking literary history that blurs the line between fantasy and reality to the point that it may never be restored."--
List of contents
Chapter 1: Perpetuating the Fraud
Chapter 2: Try Not to Be Strange
Chapter 3: Raising the Standard
Chapter 4: Kingdom Come, Kingdom Go
Chapter 5: Succession Crisis
Chapter 6: The Territory and the Map
Chapter 7: A Mere Rock
About the author
Michael Hingston is the author of Let's Go Exploring and The Dilettantes. His journalism has also appeared in National Geographic, Wired, and the Washington Post. Hingston lives in Edmonton, Alberta, with his partner and two kids.
Summary
Shortlisted for the 2023 Robert Kroetsch City of Edmonton Book Prize
On his fifteenth birthday, in the summer of 1880, future science-fiction writer M.P. Shiel sailed with his father and the local bishop from their home in the Caribbean out to the nearby island of Redonda—where, with pomp and circumstance, he was declared the island’s king. A few years later, when Shiel set sail for a new life in London, his father gave him some advice: Try not to be strange. It was almost as if the elder Shiel knew what was coming.
Try Not to Be Strange: The Curious History of the Kingdom of Redonda tells, for the first time, the complete history of Redonda’s transformation from an uninhabited, guano-encrusted island into a fantastical and international kingdom of writers. With a cast of characters including forgotten sci-fi novelists, alcoholic poets, vegetarian publishers, Nobel Prize frontrunners, and the bartenders who kept them all lubricated while angling for the throne themselves, Michael Hingston details the friendships, feuds, and fantasies that fueled the creation of one of the oddest and most enduring micronations ever dreamt into being. Part literary history, part travelogue, part quest narrative, this cautionary tale about what happens when bibliomania escapes the shelves and stacks is as charming as it is peculiar—and blurs the line between reality and fantasy so thoroughly that it may never be entirely restored.
Foreword
- Print run: 5,000 copies
- Co-op available
- Advance reader copies
- Edelweiss digital review copies
- National TV & radio campaign
- National print media campaign
- Online and social media campaign
- E-book available at same time as print edition
- Virtual launch and festival appearances
- Excerpts in Lit Hub, Electric Lit
Additional text
Praise for Michael Hingston
“A fresh take on the campus novel, Michael Hingston’s debut is a droll, incisive dissection of the terrible, terribly exciting years known as post-adolescence.”
—Patrick deWitt, author of The Sisters Brothers
"This book captures the joy and excitement at first discovering Calvin and Hobbes, and the wistful sadness that it is no more."
—Patton Oswalt
"The Dilettantes is a whip-smart and very funny literary portrait of the post-ironic generation. Don't miss this."
—Zoe Whittall, author of The Best Kind of People
"His insights are rich and concise, but he never commandeers the work, as is the habit with writing about pop culture. As a critic, Hingston uses light touches of salt to bring out the flavours already in the work... A fine companion to a comic about a kid without much interest in companionship."
—Bookshelf News
