TAUNO BILTSTED has been a cab driver, squatter on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, mediator and facilitator, and roustabout construction worker. His fiction has been published in Rosebud Magazine and the Akashic Books Mondays and Murder series, and his nonfiction has been published in World War 3 Illustrated, Wobblies!: A Graphic History of the IWW, and Perspectives on Anarchist Theory. He holds a master's degree in International Relations.
Press
Born into abject poverty in the British Empire, our narrator aspires to a better life as a ship's surgeon - until a tyrannical captain provokes a mutiny, forcing him into a life of piracy and eventually to a tropical commune of maroons called New Madagascar.
Told through a series of confessions to those who visit the narrator during his imprisonment at Marshalsea, The Anatomist's Tale relates one man's brush with the heady freedom of outlaws - and the price of returning to "civilization".
"With all the authenticity of the social historian, Biltsted writes in a swift, beautiful style. These "confessions" lead to a inevitable destination, leaving the reader pensive, satisfied, and ever willing to lend a hand, hoist a sail, and set out anew."
- Peter Linebaugh, author of Red Round Globe Hot Burning"
Author
Contact
Digital and print review copies of The Anatomist's Tale or interview requests can be directed to publicity@lanternfishpress.com.
FICTION / Sea Stories
Print: ISBN: 978-1-941369-33-0
Digital ISBN: 978-1-941360-34-1
234 pages | $16 Paperback | $9.99 EPUB
Publication Date: May 5th, 2020
Direct Author Contact:
MAY 5TH, 2020 RELEASE DATE
"A marvel of knowingness and concision...this short book contains a vast world."
- Paul La Farge, author of The Night Ocean
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"The horizon of our lives was close and intimate, confined to the terrain walked in a regular circuit, the quiet of the family in which more was left unsaid than spoken, the pub and the church of the nearest village, and the knowing nods of neighbors who trod the same country lanes." - Excerpt, The Anatomist's Tale
"The Anatomist's Tale is a thoughtful rather than swashbuckling read, exploring themes of agency, free-will and fate. Beyond such philisophical musings, Tauno Biltsted's ambitious novel also considers the workings of the political economy of the late 17th century alongside a critique of early laissez-faire capitalism."
- Ramor Ryan, reviewer for Counterpunch
COFFEE WITH COMRADES Podcast: Episode 87: "Of Shipworms & Surgeons"
Tauno joins Pearson to discuss The Anatomist's Tale, a history of his experience squatting, details his current residence at The Umbrella House, and talks about tools and strategies for organizers looking to squat in thier own neighborhoods. Discussion of The Anatomist's Tale explores animal agency, autonomy, piracy, race, class, labor, gender, identity, unreliable narrators, nonlinear stories, and so much more.
COUNTERPUNCH: "Rum, Sodomy, and the Lash" by Ramor Ryan
Review of Tauno Biltsted's, The Anatomist's Tale.
The Anatomist's Tale: Being the confessions of an unwilling pirate, marooned for a time upon the shores of New Madagascar,
by Tauno Biltsted
Lanternfish Press 2020