Running with Pirates

A warm and engaging memoir about freedom, adventure, and fathers and sons, set against the sumptuous backdrop of Corfu.

At the age of eighteen, Kari Gislason arrives on the island of Corfu after a life-altering encounter with his father in Iceland. Looking for adventure, he decides to stay after meeting ‘the Pirate’, a mysterious Greek stranger who offers him work – only to find himself eventually fleeing the island, leaving behind a debt he promises to repay.

Three decades later, as a father of two teenage sons, he returns to Corfu with his family. As he revisits his memories of the island, he begins to understand that this place has shaped the adult he has become, and that the inevitable letting go of his own children lies ahead.

Full of the colour and vitality of the Greek islands, Running with Pirates traverses the joys and challenges of parenthood, the fearlessness of youth, the debts of our past, and the stories we tell ourselves and our children.

Format: Paperback
Pages: 240
Imprint: University of Queensland
Publication date: 30/07/2024