A Manhunt on the 17th Centurys High Seas – The New York Times

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In his new book, Enemy of All Mankind, Steven Johnson writes about the first global manhunt, which occurred near the end of the 17th century, after the notorious English pirate captain Henry Every commandeered an attack on the Mughal treasure ship Ganj-i-Sawai.

One of the origin points of this project for me was years and years ago, Johnson says. When my children were very young, we went to Disney World and we went on the Pirates of the Caribbean ride, and it was right after 9/11. And I had this thought, as I was floating down the little canals of that ride and the songs are being sung and everything, that the pirates were the terrorists of the 1700s and 1600s. They were these terrifying figures who would show up out of nowhere and burn your village down and attack the women, and people lived in abject fear of them. And here it was 300 years later, and its just kind of a childrens story. So that link between pirates and terrorism, which is something that runs kind of subtly through Enemy of All Mankind, actually began on that Disney World ride in some ways.

Want to read Stephen King but unsure of where to start? Gilbert Cruz, the editor of The Timess Arts section, visits the podcast to discuss his guide to Kings essential works. One of the amazing things about King is, of course, how many books hes written, and within his oeuvre the many different kinds of genres that he has dipped into, Cruz says. In his later years, hes written detective novels, some of them have a little tinge of the supernatural. He recommends The Outsider in this vein. Its a great crime novel, theres sort of a spooky undertone to the whole thing.

Also on this weeks episode, Alexandra Alter has news from the publishing world; and Gregory Cowles and John Williams talk about what people are reading. Pamela Paul is the host.

Here are the books discussed in this weeks What Were Reading:

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A Manhunt on the 17th Centurys High Seas - The New York Times