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    The Shark God: Encounters with Ghosts and Ancestors in the South Pacific
    Unavailable
    The Shark God: Encounters with Ghosts and Ancestors in the South Pacific
    Unavailable
    The Shark God: Encounters with Ghosts and Ancestors in the South Pacific
    Ebook426 pages7 hours

    The Shark God: Encounters with Ghosts and Ancestors in the South Pacific

    By Charles Montgomery

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    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this ebook

    When Charles Montgomery was ten years old, he stumbled upon the memoirs of his great-grandfather, a seafaring missionary in the South Pacific. Poring over the faint text and faded pictures, he was entranced by the world of black magic and savagery the bishop described, and couldn't help but wonder what drove the Victorian to risk his life among people who had shot, drowned, or clubbed to death so many of his predecessors.

    Twenty years later and a century after that journey, Montgomery sets out for the reefs and atolls of Melanesia in search of the very spirits and myths the missionaries had sought to destroy. He retraces his ancestor's path through the far-flung islands, exploring the bond between faith and magic, the eerie persistence of the spirit world, and the heavy footprints of Empire.

    What he discovers is a world of sorcery and shark worship, where the lines between Christian and pagan rituals are as blurred as the frontiers of fact, fantasy, and faith. After confrontations with a bizarre cast of cult leaders, militants, and mystics, the author, in his quest for ancient magic, is led to an island in crisis -- and to a new myth with the power to destroy or to save its people forever.

    Alternately terrifying, moving, and hilarious, with overtones of Melville and Conrad, The Shark God is Montgomery's extraordinary and piercingly intelligent account of both Melanesia's transformation and his own. This defiantly original blend of history and memoir, anthropology and travel writing, marks the debut of a singular new talent.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperCollins
    Release dateMar 17, 2009
    ISBN9780061856587
    Unavailable
    The Shark God: Encounters with Ghosts and Ancestors in the South Pacific

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    Reviews for The Shark God

    4/5

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    • 4/5
      Following in the footsteps of his great-grandfather, a missionary to the Melanesian islands, Montgomery embarks on his own journey of discovery. In an attempt to find the deep faith of his ancestor, he treks to remote villages of indigenous peoples to witness their secret ceremonies, black magic, totems and superstitions. The lines between myth and miracle become blurred as Montgomery learns to define his own beliefs.
    • 5/5
      When this book is released in July of this year (2006), it should be at the very top of your books-to-buy list. I read it as part of the First Look program of Harper Collins; I have the ARC but will go buy the book when it comes out. This is truly the best book I have read in a very long time and I cannot begin to even express how very very good it is. It is nonfiction, travel but not yet travel, and incorporates history, mythology, religion, spirituality, anthropology and an insight gleaned from the author that is truly unbelievable. I picked this book up yesterday and had I not had to go to my classes last night would have finished it before I went to bed. It is one of those books you can't not read once you've started it....unputdownable.Inspired by his find of an envelope of sand in the library at Oxford, the author, Charles Montgomery decides that he will follow the route taken in 1892 by his great-grandfather, Henry Montgomery, and Anglican missionary and bishop. Henry had gone on the mission ship Southern Cross with the mission of bringing "the One True God to the heathens of the Melanesian archipelago". Charles Montgomery's tracing of his ancestor's footsteps is only part of the journey, though. It's what he finds along the way that comprises the meat of this story.In a nutshell: the first missionaries reported back that the inhabitants of the Melanesian island chain practiced cannibalism, headhunting, magic, and had a lust for blood. The Melanesians also had literally thousands of spirits inhabiting the islands, and if someone knew the right techniques, then it was possible to "harness the power of curses, magic cures and helpful spirits." (12) But as Christianity began to move into the islands and the writings of the missionaries began to tout their successes, these gods and spirits, as noted by the author, "receded into the shadow of the new god..." (13) The author sets out in his grandfather's shadow to find where these spirits had gone and to find any vestiges of "heathens," and to discover the old knowledge from "someone very old and wise." (17) What he expects to find and what he finds make up the very heart and soul of this story.It is an incredible journey; I was literally mesmerized from cover to cover. I highly recommend this book. My only critique is that it needs pictures! This would have more fully fleshed out the author's adventures. Maybe there are no pictures because it's an ARC. Please do NOT miss this book.