In November 2018, a young American missionary kayaked onto a remote beach in the Indian Ocean and was killed by indigenous islanders wielding bows and arrows. News of that fatal encounter on North Sentinel Island—a small patch of land in the Andaman archipelago—fascinated people around the world. Most were unaware such a place existed in our time: an island whose hunter-gatherer inhabitants still live in near-total isolation.
Twenty years before that ill-fated visit, another traveler—Adam Goodheart, a young American writer—had made his own journey to North Sentinel’s coastline. He returned to the Andaman Islands after the missionary’s death. The Last Island is the tale of those voyages, a poignant work of history as well as travel, a journey in both time and place. It reveals the stories of others drawn to North Sentinel’s mystery over the centuries, from British imperial adventurers to an enigmatic Victorian photographer to modern-day anthropologists. It chronicles neighboring Andaman tribes’ encounters with the outside world, unfolding a dark saga of race, science, and empire worthy of a Joseph Conrad novel. And it shows how the web of modernity is drawing ever closer to North Sentinel’s shores.
The Last Island is a beautifully written meditation on the end of the Age of Discovery. It will speak to any reader interested in the limits—and dangers—of our globalizing society and its emphasis on ceaseless, unbroken connection.
“A thrilling book that will leave you contemplating the concept of civilization.”
— Kirkus (★starred review)
“Adam Goodheart’s The Last Island thrills you from the beginning with an 18th century-style tale of adventure set in the present day. But it moves into a deeper reflection on a small tribe and its ancient culture standing alone in a globalized modern world. This book is both exciting and important—an adventure worth contemplating.”
—Mark Kurlansky, author of Cod: A Biography of the Fish that Changed the World
“The Last Island has the elegance of a spiraling seashell. In the fascinating tale of one small island caught in the mesh of modern imperialism and technology, Adam Goodheart has crafted a narrative that winds outward from a personal obsession to a broad interrogation about the value and purpose of human contact. This beguiling book holds within it the echo of vast historical tides.”
—Maya Jasanoff, author of The Dawn Watch: Joseph Conrad in a Global World
“Adam Goodheart takes us on a fascinating journey to a place that has so far eluded the devious entanglements of our hyperconnected world: North Sentinel Island at the outer edge of the Bay of Bengal. Part travelogue, part history, The Last Island is full of teasing enticements and disturbing revelations, a mesmerizing chronicle of a people at the frayed edge of so-called civilization.”
—Nathaniel Philbrick, author of In the Heart of the Sea, Mayflower, and Travels with George
“Adam Goodheart has achieved something most of us can only dream of: finding a place where few of his compatriots have ever been. I wish I had been with him on the journey, but this gracefully written book is the next best thing.”
—Adam Hochschild, author of King Leopold’s Ghost
“In a world that is fully mapped, where distances are not what they used to be, Adam Goodheart’s genius lies in his ability to take us back centuries. The Last Island awakened in me a primordial sense of wonder.”
—Aatish Taseer, author of The Twice-Born: Life and Death on the Ganges