Lanterna Rally

Author: Montague Kobbé

Publisher: Akashic Books

Published: 2013-08-12

Total Pages: 216

ISBN-13: 1617751820

This tale of a little-known revolt in the Caribbean is “part literary thriller, part revolutionary study, part epic historical narrative”(Joe Meno, author of The Boy Detective Fails). A sympathetic and often humorous account of an obscure episode in the history of the remote island of Anguilla, in the northeast Caribbean, The Night of the Rambler revolves around a haphazard attempt by a dozen or so locals to invade neighboring St. Kitts, in an effort to topple the government of the recently established Associated State of St. Kitts-Nevis-Anguilla. Ostensibly, the action maps the fifteen hours that lapse between the moment when the “rebels” board The Rambler, the thirty-five-foot motorboat that will take them across the strait to St. Kitts, and the break of dawn the following day, when it becomes obvious that the unaccomplished mission will have to be aborted. The novel is at turns highly dramatic and hilarious, all the while bringing deep honesty to the often-unexamined righteousness of revolution. “Colorful detours into native lore, such as a rich Dutchman’s fabled courtship of a local beauty, strike grace notes that echo Marquez. . . . Readers . . . will be rewarded with the little-known tale of how the underdog country demanded its own place in the 20th century.” —Publishers Weekly “This is a book about revolution and the underdog, about a small, isolated island fighting for recognition, opportunity and justice; it is a compelling tale about a curious historical episode, but also a vital look at priorities, perspective and the right to live in dignity, issues that, much like Anguilla’s rebellion of 1967, are all too easily forgotten.” —The Island Review “This is a fine novel, a surprising novel, perhaps the first true novel I have read about the nature of revolutions. The Night of the Rambler is ambitious, smart, and successful. It raises all sorts of questions about what revolutions want, how revolutions fail, and why revolutions are necessary—challenging all the while how history remembers them.” —Percival Everett, author of Erasure