Pirate Freedom by Gene Wolfe A young but worldly-wise priest is writing his memoirs. It started when Chris was put in a monastery school in Cuba and decided he didn’t want to take orders. When he left the monastery, the Havana he knew was gone, replaced by a much smaller one. Without money, food or shelter, he found work on a pirate ship. He made friends with Cap’n Burt, but didn’t want to become a murderous pirate himself. So much for good intentions. After several more adventures, he finds himself captain of his own pirate ship, pursued (romantically) by the wily and courageous Novia. The straightforward prose suits the book well, telling the plain facts of real pirate life. The action is violent without being romanticized and the plot does several quite unexpected flips. And while Father Chris is writing his memoirs and working at the Teen Center, he’s plotting how he can get back in time to the wife he left behind. I hear Neil Gaiman’s calling it essential reading.