“Many brave hearts are asleep in the deep, so beware,
beware,” goes the chorus of an old sailors’ sing-along that
celebrates the allure and danger of the seafaring life. But
make no mistake–there truly is much to beware for those who
are drawn to risk their lives and seek their fortunes upon
the waves. And perhaps none take more chances than the men
and women who brave the tempestuous, bountiful waters of
the Bering Sea. Season after season, they bond and battle
with its icy depths, determined to reap yet one more
rewarding harvest while eluding the ever-present threat of
sudden, certain death. And among the rapidly diminishing
ranks of these die-hard salts, brothers Andy and Johnathan
Hillstrand have forged a reputation as fierce masters of
their treacherous, enthralling trade. If you’ve watched
their exploits on TV’s Deadliest Catch, you’ve only
scratched the surface. To read Time Bandit is to step into
their skins, smell the sea air, feel the frigid wind, and
know with all your senses the exhilarating, and terrifying
life on the edge.
Natives of tiny, fishing hamlet, Homer, Alaska; sons of a
hard-bitten, highly successful fisherman; and born with
brine in their blood, the Hillstrand boys couldn’t imagine
a life without a swaying deck underfoot and a harvest of
mighty Alaskan king crabs waiting to be pulled from the
ocean floor. In pursuit of their daily catch, the brothers
brave ice floes and heaving waves 60 feet high, the perils
of 1000-lb steel traps thrown about by the punishing wind,
and the constant menace of the open, hungry water.
Even the brothers’ downtime on land–where the deadly
realities of the unforgiving sea are never far from their
minds–is lived as if borrowed: fast and hard, haunted by
the knowledge that the next season at sea could end asleep
in the deep.
Here is the Hillstrands’ own heartfelt hymn to the brutally
hard, gloriously independent, and mysteriously soul-
satisfying life that has earned them their daily bread and
defined their existence. By turns raucous and reflective,
exhilarating and anguished, enthralling, suspenseful, and
wise, Time Bandit chronicles a larger-than-life love affair
as old as civilization itself–a love affair between
striving, willful man and inscrutable, enduring nature.
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