First published 2023
North Sentinel Island sits in the Andaman archipelago, home to the Sentinelese people who fire arrows at any outsider attempting to land. In 2018, they killed an American missionary who called their home "Satan's last stronghold." Twenty years earlier, historian Adam Goodheart had traveled to these same waters and witnessed another isolated Andaman tribe make first contact with the modern world. Now Goodheart returns to examine this final pocket of human isolation. He traces the island's history through imperial explorers, Victorian photographers, and contemporary anthropologists who have all been drawn to its mystery. The book follows the tragic fates of other Andaman tribes who encountered outsiders, showing how modernity creeps closer to North Sentinel's shores. Goodheart weaves together travel narrative and historical investigation to capture what may be the last chapter of the Age of Discovery in our connected world.
Genres: history, adventure, anthropology, non-fiction
Vibes: intimate, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: fish-out-of-water, historical-investigation
Setting: North Sentinel Island, Andaman Archipelago
Period: 2018, 20th Century
272 pages · Hardcover · David R. Godine, Publisher