Marco Polo
1711. The Saint Joseph departs from Dublin bound for Newfoundland and Cádiz, carrying a crew of English and Irish sailors shaped by war, exile and misfortune. Among them is Sean Hora, the son of a respected Irish merchant, whose ambition is not fortune, but a return to Ireland to pursue a life of study.As the vessel crosses hostile Atlantic waters, the fragile balance between survival and law begins to fracture. In a world where privateering, commerce and war overlap, danger emerges not only from the sea, but from shifting allegiances and unseen intentions.When the Canary Island privateer Amaro Pargo sets his sights on the small Irish ship, the boundary between legitimate capture and piracy becomes uncertain. The disappearance of a royal passport places the legality of the prize in question, leading to a trial in which reputation, authority and honour are at stake.Grounded in archival research and inspired by real events, Buying Heaven reconstructs the complexities of the early eighteenth-century Atlantic world, where trade, conflict and ambition converge, and where the fate of men is often decided far from land.
