THE FOLIO SOCIETY

Fourteen years have passed since Tom Lingard, a successful seafarer and trader in the Malay archipelago, came to the rescue of Willems, a young Dutch cabin boy. Willems has since prospered, but when he arrogantly commits an act of embezzlement, his old benefactor offers the sole hope of redemption, with a position at a trading post on the remote island of Sambir. If Lingard thinks this spell in the wilderness will do his protégé some good, however, he is to be cruelly betrayed, as the weak-spirited Willems becomes a pawn in the schemes of the Malayans. A powerful tale of colonial intrigue and adventure, An Outcast of the Islands is the 'prequel' to Almayer's Folly, and revolves around characters and settings familiar from Conrad's first novel.