National Network for Equitable Library Service

In the middle of the Caribbean, there sits a small island called Redonda. But what at first appears to be an uninhabited rock turns out to also be the site of a fragmented, fiercely contested kingdom that dates back more than a century--a kingdom of writers, with little in common besides their shared allegiance to the Redondan throne. Now, Michael Hingston has assembled this unbelievable true story for the first time. Drawing on a cast of characters that includes forgotten sci-fi novelists, alcoholic poets, vegetarian publishers, and Nobel Prize frontrunners, Try Not to Be Strange: The Curious History of The Kingdom of Redonda is a rollicking literary history that blurs the line between fantasy and reality to the point that it may never be restored.