BLUE LATITUDES Boldly Going Where Captain Cook Has Gone Before

Daniel Gerroll's rich, fluid voice runs the gamut from an educated Englishman to an Australian oaf. Since the life of English explorer James Cook (1728-1779) seems now to be at least partly about the clash of cultures, Gerroll is an ideal narrator. Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Horwitz crews on a replica of one of Cook's ships, and then, on separate outings, visits the extremes of climate and culture reached by the man who sailed off the edge of the map. The book begins in the past with Hawaiian natives returning the captain's severed hands to his ship. Cook had been murdered by men who once thought him a god, an early martyr to globalization. B.H.C. (c) AudioFile 2003, Portland, Maine [Published: APR/MAY 03]