About this item
A rollicking debut novel from award-winning playwright and screenwriter John Pielmeier reimagines the childhood of the much maligned Captain Hook: his quest for buried treasure, his friendship with Peter Pan, and the story behind the swashbuckling world of Neverland.Long defamed as a vicious pirate, Captain James Cook (a.k.a Hook) was in fact a dazzling wordsmith who left behind a vibrant, wildly entertaining, and entirely truthful memoir. His chronicle offers a counter narrative to the works of J.M. Barrie, a "dour Scotsman" whose spurious accounts got it all wrong. Now, award-winning playwright John Pielmeier is proud to present this crucial historic artifact in its entirety for the first time. Cook's story begins in London, where he lives with his widowed mother. At thirteen, he runs away from home, but is kidnapped and pressed into naval service as an unlikely cabin boy. Soon he discovers a treasure map that leads to a mysterious archipelago called the "Never-Isles" from which there appears to be no escape. In the course of his adventures he meets the pirates Smee and Starkey, falls in love with the enchanting Tiger Lily, adopts an oddly affectionate crocodile, and befriends a charming boy named Peter - who teaches him to fly. He battles monsters, fights in mutinies, swims with mermaids, and eventually learns both the sad and terrible tale of his mother's life and the true story of his father's disappearance. Like Gregory Maguire's Wicked, Hook's Tale offers a radical new version of a classic story, bringing readers into a much richer, darker, and enchanting version of Neverland than ever before. The characters that our hero meets - including the terrible Doctor Uriah Slinque and a little girl named Wendy - lead him to the most difficult decision of his life: whether to submit to the temptation of eternal youth, or to embrace the responsibilities of maturity and the inevitability of his own mortality. His choice, like his story, is not what you might expect.
About the Author
JOHN PIELMEIER began his career with the play and movie Agnes of God. Since then
he has had three more plays mounted on Broadway and over twenty-five film, television
movies and miniseries produced. Most recently he has written and acted in the
internationally successful limited series The Pillars of the Earth (named the 5th Best
Miniseries of All Time!) and is currently prepping his stage adaptation of The Exorcist for
its West End premiere in late autumn 2017. (It recently played in Birmingham England
to glorious reviews and enthusiastic standing ovations.) His first novel, Hook's Tale, is
being published by Scribner in July 2017. In between he has received the Humanitas
Award (plus two nominations) , five Writers' Guild Award nominations, a Gemini
nomination, an Edgar Award, the Camie Award, a Christopher Award, and his projects
have won a Gemini Award and been nominated for the Emmy Award (three times) and
the Golden Globe Award. He is married to writer Irene O'Garden and makes his home in
upstate New York. If you want to know more, please visit his website:
johnpielmeier.com.
