The Outlaw Ocean
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  • Published: 15 September 2020
  • ISBN: 9781529111392
  • Imprint: Vintage
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 560
  • RRP: $26.00

The Outlaw Ocean

Crime and Survival in the Last Untamed Frontier

Formats & editions
Paperback
15 Sep 2020
EBook
19 Sep 2019
Audiobook
19 Sep 2019
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A riveting, adrenalin-fuelled tour of the unbridled extremes of human behaviour and activity in that vast, lawless and rampantly criminal world that few have ever seen: the high seas.

'Just incredible' Naomi Klein
'Gripping and shocking...with the pace of a thriller' The Times

A New York Times bestseller, The Outlaw Ocean is a riveting, adrenalin-fuelled tour of a vast, lawless and rampantly criminal world that few have ever seen: the high seas.

The oceans are some of the last untamed frontiers on our planet.

Too big to police, and under no clear international authority, these treacherous waters play host to the extremes of human behaviour and activity.

From traffickers, smugglers and pirates to vigilante conservationists, stowaways and seabound abortion-providers, Ian Urbina introduces us to the inhabitants of this hidden world and their risk-fraught lives. Through their extraordinary stories, he uncovers a globe-spanning network of crime and exploitation that emanates from the fishing, oil and shipping industries - but to which all of us are connected.

LONGLISTED FOR THE BAILLIE GIFFORD PRIZE 2019

'An astonishing book about a world most of us don't even know exists' Oliver Bullough, author of Moneyland

'An outstanding investigation of a global criminal culture on the high seas' Guardian

'Truly important... A complex portrait of an unseen and disturbing world' New York Times
  • Published: 15 September 2020
  • ISBN: 9781529111392
  • Imprint: Vintage
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 560
  • RRP: $26.00
Categories:

About the author

Ian Urbina

Ian Urbina spent five years, more than three of them at sea, uncovering the stories in The Outlaw Ocean, which began life as a series of articles for The New York Times that won seven major awards. He is a Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter for The New York Times where his investigations have covered oil and mining disasters, sex trafficking, high-school shooting, criminal justice, worker safety and the environment. Several have been made into films, and he has been nominated for an Emmy. Urbina has degrees in history from Georgetown and the University of Chicago, and lives in Washington, D.C., with his family.

portrait photo of Ian Urbina

Praise for The Outlaw Ocean

Just incredible

Naomi Klein

Incredible, readable, riveting

Sam Walker, Wall Street Journal

You simply have to read this

Karen Tumulty, Washington Post

Staggering

Oliver Franklin-Walles, Wired

Urbina has written an astonishing book about a world most of us don't even know exists. These are dispatches from the lawless ocean - of traffickers, slaves, heroes, gangsters, crooks and scoundrels - which will amaze, enthral and appal you

Oliver Bullough, author of Moneyland

Gripping and shocking by turns … Most of the book clips along with the pace of a thriller … stomach-churningly tense … as outlandish and as thrilling as a heist film

The Times

[A] remarkable piece of reportage… Gripping, visceral and often deeply shocking

Big Issue

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Video
The Outlaw Ocean

Pre-order at: http://www.theoutlawocean.com/the-outlaw-ocean There are few remaining frontiers on our planet... Perhaps the wildest, and least understood, are the world’s oceans: too big to police, and under no clear international authority, these immense regions of treacherous water play host to rampant criminality and exploitation: traffickers and smugglers, pirates and mercenaries, wreck thieves and repo men, vigilante conservationists and elusive poachers, clandestine oil dumpers, shackled slaves and cast-adrift stowaways. Drawing on five years of perilous and intrepid reporting, often hundreds of miles from shore, journalist and Parley collaborator Ian Urbina introduces us to the inhabitants of this hidden world. Through their stories of astonishing courage and brutality, survival and tragedy, he uncovers a globe-spanning network of crime and exploitation that emanates from the fishing, oil, and shipping industries, and on which the world’s economies rely. Follow http://www.instagram.com/parley.tv this July as Ian shares stories from The Outlaw Ocean.