'A warm and engaging memoir about freedom, adventure, and fathers and sons, set against the sumptuous backdrop of Corfu.
'At the age of eighteen, Kari Gislason arrives on the island of Corfu after a life-altering encounter with his father in Iceland. Looking for adventure, he decides to stay after meeting 'the Pirate', a mysterious Greek stranger who offers him work - only to find himself eventually fleeing the island, leaving behind a debt he promises to repay.
'Three decades later, as a father of two teenage sons, he returns to Corfu with his family. As he revisits his memories of the island, he begins to understand that this place has shaped the adult he has become, and that the inevitable letting go of his own children lies ahead.
'Full of the colour and vitality of the Greek islands, Running with Pirates traverses the joys and challenges of parenthood, the fearlessness of youth, the debts of our past, and the stories we tell ourselves and our children.' (Publication summary)
'Kári Gíslason’s memoir of escape and adventure during his early adulthood begins in transit: he is freshly eighteen, ‘sleeping on the floor next to hot air vents at the back of a grand old ferry that connected Brindisi in the heel of Italy with Athens’. Kári is travelling with an ‘often-jolly, sometimes sarcastic’ Scotsman named Paul, and their relationship has begun to fray. Worse, they are low on money, which means their travels and ‘freedom’ may soon be over. Gíslason notes: ‘We were unemployable. I was sickly thin, and my hair past my shoulders and knotted. Paul always looked like he’d just woken up.’ Both are searching for ways to forget their troubles and orient themselves as they take the first steps into manhood, but the pressures that come with such a task have left them feeling oppressed and alienated.' (Introduction)
'Brisbane author and father Kari Gislason has a talent for mining his past, with his latest memoir very much a book written for his sons.'
'The location: a taverna on the Greek island of Corfu. The time: late afternoon in September 1990. Kári Gíslason is 18, travelling through Europe, broke, and about to meet the titular pirate of his memoir Running with Pirates: “the sliding glass door rumbled open. ‘What is it?’ The Pirate’s head appeared while his body stayed behind the door, in the dark. ‘I’m not open,’ he said. ‘Fuck off.’ ”'
A mysterious man named the Pirate and the beautiful island of Corfu feature in this memoir from the author of The Sorrow Stone.'
A mysterious man named the Pirate and the beautiful island of Corfu feature in this memoir from the author of The Sorrow Stone.'
'The location: a taverna on the Greek island of Corfu. The time: late afternoon in September 1990. Kári Gíslason is 18, travelling through Europe, broke, and about to meet the titular pirate of his memoir Running with Pirates: “the sliding glass door rumbled open. ‘What is it?’ The Pirate’s head appeared while his body stayed behind the door, in the dark. ‘I’m not open,’ he said. ‘Fuck off.’ ”'
'Kári Gíslason’s memoir of escape and adventure during his early adulthood begins in transit: he is freshly eighteen, ‘sleeping on the floor next to hot air vents at the back of a grand old ferry that connected Brindisi in the heel of Italy with Athens’. Kári is travelling with an ‘often-jolly, sometimes sarcastic’ Scotsman named Paul, and their relationship has begun to fray. Worse, they are low on money, which means their travels and ‘freedom’ may soon be over. Gíslason notes: ‘We were unemployable. I was sickly thin, and my hair past my shoulders and knotted. Paul always looked like he’d just woken up.’ Both are searching for ways to forget their troubles and orient themselves as they take the first steps into manhood, but the pressures that come with such a task have left them feeling oppressed and alienated.' (Introduction)
'Brisbane author and father Kari Gislason has a talent for mining his past, with his latest memoir very much a book written for his sons.'
