From Zimbabwean author George Makana Clarke, an audacious, darkly comic, and wildly entertaining epic of pirates, con men, and the enduring scars of the slave trade.

Lisbon, 1954. In the Military History Archives, a mysterious figure steals the Last Will and Testament of Garoto Bárbaro de Castro—a list of thirteen bequests, and a record of Garoto’s remarkable life story. It is also a window onto many other lives connected to his, including that of the archival thief—his descendent, Nuno Bárbaro de Castro. 

After stealing Garoto’s Last Will and Testament, Nuno—artifact hunter, grave-robber, conman, fake veterinarian, and agent of Angolan Independence—sets off to hunt the listed artefacts, and unintentionally begins to collect the distant relatives of those mentioned in the Will, even when they don’t want to be collected... 

A Hundred Years of Solitude meets The Count of Monte Cristo, The Wreckers is a centuries-spanning tour de force that moves between Angola, Cuba, and Louisiana’s “Angola” prison to examine the scars of the transatlantic slave trade, and the consequences of prolonged civil war. 

TARGET CONSUMER
- An intoxicating mix of Patrick O’Brien, Alexandre Dumas, and Colum McCann, and Yaa Gyasi
- For fans of ambitious literary fiction with swagger
- Book club readers who enjoy big themes and narrative drive
- Readers of Gabriel García Márquez, David Mitchell, Susanna Clarke, A.S. Byatt, Eleanor Catton, Joseph O’Connor, Susanna Clarke, Richard Flanagan, Peter Carey
- For multi-generational storytelling and the long afterlife of colonial violence.
- Historical fiction readers open to experimentation
- Readers drawn to maritime adventure, rogues, pirates, and empire

KEY SELLING POINTS
- Author’s American debut novel
- Big, propulsive, globe-spanning, epoch-mixing literary epic
- Unforgettable characters with swagger
- Serious themes but a lot of fun