The Death Ship

byB. Traven

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He who enters here will no longer have existence; his name and soul have vanished and are gone forever…

When sailor Gerard Gales loses his passport, he becomes stateless overnight. Stranded in post-war Europe, he drifts from one country to the next, repeatedly arrested and moved on until he finally finds work on the Yorikke, a decrepit ‘death ship’ bound for destruction. Condemned to stoke the furnaces, Gales must navigate a labyrinth of surreal rules, exploitation and the brutal realities of life at sea if he is to make it out alive. First published in 1926, The Death Ship is an absurd, darkly compelling tale of what it takes to survive when life is cheap.

The greatest of Traven's works, it is a good-humored but devastating attack on bureaucracy and the state

Los Angeles Times

About B. Traven

Little is known for certain about the life of B. Traven; a prolific writer, he is best known for his beloved adventure novel The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, and the Jungle Novels, a series set during and after the outbreak of the Mexican Revolution, with proletarian, anarchist themes. During his lifetime, he was variously (and incorrectly) identified as the son of Kaiser Wilhelm I, or a North German brickmaker, but it is now believed that he was born Moritz Rathenau in Germany in 1882, the illegitimate son of Emil Rathenau, the founder of AEG and Helen Mareck, an Irish actress. He lived for some time as Ret Marut, a merchant seaman, actor, journalist and politician, and left Germany in 1923 after having been sentenced to death for his part in the Bavarian Revolution. He arrived in Mexico in 1924, where he dedicated himself to writing full time. Traven married Rosa Elena Luján in 1957 and died in Mexico City in 1969.
Details
  • Imprint: Penguin Classics
  • ISBN: 9780241822210
  • Length: 384 pages
  • Price: £12.99
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