Vendor
	Mohrbooks Literary Agency Sebastian Ritscher
Original language
English
Categories
Memoirs

THE STOWAWAY

Laurie Gwen Shapiro

A Young Man’s Extraordinary Adventure to Antarctica

THE STOWAWAY is the true story of a 17-year boy from New York’s Lower East Side who stowed away on a 1928 scientific expedition to Antarctica and realized his dream.

In 1928, Richard Evelyn Byrd, runner up to Charles Lindbergh for the first New York-to-Paris flight, conceived of an expedition to Antarctica, desperate for a second chance to take his place in history. The rich and powerful begged to go along but it is a 17-year-old immigrant kid from New York who jumped into the Hudson River the night before Bryd’s ship sailed. Billy Gawronski was desperate to escape a dreary future in the family upholstery business and took the leap to a new adventure. From the rowdy dance halls of Panama to sultry Francophone Tahiti, all the way to the first American village on the frozen bottom of the world, Shapiro paints a breathless portrait of a reckless, optimistic era when three-masted sailing ships and dog-sleds co-existed with newfangled airplanes. And when an out-of-luck aviator and a 17-year-old stowaway looking to prove themselves carried the hopes of so many yearning to do the same.

The book has everything you’re looking for in a great adventure story: an evocative era, larger-than-life characters, more than a dash of danger, and a feel-good moral about taking risks to live your dreams.

Laurie Gwen Shapiro is an award-winning documentary filmmaker and journalist whose writing has appeared in New York, Slate, Aeon, The Forward, and the Los Angeles Review of Books. The Stowaway is her first full-length work of nonfiction.

Available products
Book Published 2018-01-02 by Simon & Schuster
Book Published 2018-01-02 by Simon & Schuster

Comments

A gripping, gritty, mischievous tale from an age of exploration and wonder. The Stowaway makes real history read like a boy’s adventure novel.

Laurie Gwen Shapiro's The Stowaway is full of twists, turns, and moments of pure wonder—both joy to read and a surprisingly insightful tale of scientific exploration at its generous and courageous best.

What has the world come to when sled dogs and short wave radio mix, when wooden sailing barks compete with aeroplanes, when ‘Eskimos’ figuratively dance with flappers, and all of this is captured and disseminated by the first public relations hucksters? Laurie Gwen Shapiro’s The Stowaway is magnificent.

Shapiro has rescued from oblivion a wondrous tale of exploration.The Stowaway is a thrilling adventure that captures not only the making of a man but also a nation.

The Stowaway proves that fact is stranger and funnier and more amazing than fiction. Laurie Gwen Shapiro artfully draws the reader into the tale of Billy Gawronski, a dreamer and adventurer. Through the wild story of his travels to Antarctica, we see history come vividly to life.

The Stowaway tells one of the most engaging, but forgotten, stories from the Age of Exploration. A fascinating and charming book—I highly recommend it!

Laurie Gwen Shapiro wrote The Stowaway like a Jack London novel: with a sense of adventure, wonderful detail, a lineup of intriguing characters, and above all a great story. This is the best of nonfiction.