Inhalt: | Remote Pitcairn Island, a place of towering cliffs and lashing surf, is home to descendants of Fletcher Christian and the Bounty crew, who fled there with a group of Tahitian maidens after deposing Captain Bligh in 1789. Shrouded in myth, the island was considered a tropical Shangri-La by outsiders--but as the world discovered two centuries later, it was also a place of sinister secrets. In 2000, police descended on the British territory to investigate an allegation of child rape, and uncovered a trail of child abuse dating back at least three generations. Most islanders, including the victims' mothers, claimed it was the Pitcairn "way of life." The ensuing trials commanded worldwide attention and tore the close-knit, interrelated community apart. Journalist Kathy Marks lived on Pitcairn for six weeks and observed how the tiny, claustrophobic community ticked: the gossip, the feuding, the intimacy--and the power dynamics that had allowed the abuse to flourish.--From publisher description |
