Port na Farraige Goirt

Port na Farraige Goirt
256 pages; paperback; ISBN 0 898331 02 0

A graphic novel by Hugo Pratt in the Corto Maltese series for adult and young adult readers.

1914, somewhere in the southwestern Pacific. Captain Rasputin’s sailing boat comes upon a man strapped to a raft adrift in the ocean: Corto Maltese. Corto and Rasputin are working for the Monk, the mysterious lord of the South Sea pirates — a man who carries a dark secret close to his heart.

Femme Fatale and Sea-Hardened Sailor

As England and Germany prepare for the Great War at sea, we’re drawn into an adventure and in a world inhabited by cannibals and battleships, heroes and traitors, friends and madmen. And by a beautiful young woman who would charm the most sea-hardened sailor on ‘The Banks of the Salt Seas’ (Port na Farraige Goirt).

“A Rogue with a Heart of Gold”

“Corto Maltese (whose name derives from the Andalusian Argot and means “quick hands”) is a laconic sea captain adventuring during the early 20th century (1900-1920s). A “rogue with a heart of gold”, he is tolerant and sympathetic to the underdog. Born in Valletta, he is the son of a British sailor from Cornwall and an Andalusian–Romani witch and prostitute known as “La Niña de Gibraltar”.

Corto Supports of the Oppressed

“As a boy growing up in the Jewish quarter of Córdoba, Maltese discovered that he had no fate line on his palm and therefore carved his own with his father’s razor, determining that his fate was his to choose. Although maintaining a neutral position, Corto instinctively supports the disadvantaged and oppressed.” — Wikipedia

This is the first book in the graphic novel series ‘Corto’. Also available: An Teach Órga i Samarkand and Corto sa tSibéir.

Port na Farraige Goirt on Wikipedia

Read the review on Aonghus Ó hAlmhain’s blog

Foghlaí Mara!