BOY FROM THE SKY: THE CURIOUS GENESIS OF THE WORLD’ S FIRST ETHNOGRAPHY
Book ID/图书代码： 00530014B76151
English Summary/英文概要： In 1806 a British privateer limped into the Tongan archipelago. This is the story of the fifteen year-old ship’s clerk who, in four years, rose from being a naked and derided castaway to a member of the Tongan aristocracy.
Eight years after he was rescued, William Mariner’s account of his years in Tonga became a best-seller not because of its status as the world’s first ethnography but due to the extraordinary adventure story he told.
Surviving a massacre aboard the ship, Mariner was adopted by its perpetrator, King Finau, and groomed to be his lieutenant. With the ship’s cannons and muskets in the hands of the sixteen other crewmembers he had spared for the task, Finau plunged the islands into civil war. Mariner’s graphic account of the impact of western arms upon a stone-age population is matched by his descriptions of the chaotic scenes that followed as Finau’s army resorted to cannibalism and headhunting.
But by placing himself at the centre of the action and airbrushing out the other crewmembers Mariner constructed a gripping but deeply deceptive narrative. From sources unavailable at the time of the publication of his account this book uncovers the extraordinary reasons for his deception.
Chinese Summary/中文概要： 1806年，一名英国私掠船船员一瘸一拐地踏上了汤加群岛的土地，这个15岁的少年曾是个衣不蔽体的弃儿，但在短短的四年间，成为了汤加贵族的一员。
在获救后的第八年，威廉•马里纳将他在汤加的经历出版成书，这本书非常畅销，但并不是因为其世上第一本民族志的名号，而是因为威廉的传奇历险故事。
威廉从一场船上大屠杀中幸存下来，而发起屠杀的则是国王菲诺，他收养了威廉，并将其培养成为自己的助手。菲诺对小岛展开了攻击，船上的所有大炮和枪支都由16名船员操控，威廉则免于劳务。在威廉的描述中，菲诺向毫无反击之力的岛民开炮，还食他们的肉，割下他们的头颅。
威廉的故事很精彩，但却是一派胡言，而他欺瞒的原因也正逐渐浮出水面。（XAT）
Awards/获奖情况：
About the Author/作者介绍： 奈杰尔•兰德尔在全世界范围内为英国广播公司及英国第四频道拍摄纪录片，这样的生活已经持续了25年。他的作品获得过三次皇室电视协会大奖，两次艾美奖。奈杰尔现居于瓦瓦乌群岛。
Nigel Randell spent twenty-five years making documentaries in many parts of the world for the BBC and Channel Four. His films won three Royal Television Society Awards and two US Emmys. He lives in Vava’u in the Kingdom of Tonga.
Format:
Rights Status/版权销售情况：Simplified Chinese/简体中文：AVAILABLE
Complex/Traditional Chinese/繁体中文：AVAILABLE
Sales in other countries/其他国家销售情况：
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