Imagine a pair of petty criminals shanghai’d the wrong guy. Drugged him, trussed him up, and made him a sailor, not realizing that the fellow they’d kidnapped was himself a notorious cutthroat. What would happen when he awakened on board the schooner, surrounded by the very gentlemen who’d set him afloat? Suppose a Pope in the ninth century loathed his predecessor, conside Imagine a pair of petty criminals shanghai’d the wrong guy. Drugged him, trussed him up, and made him a sailor, not realizing that the fellow they’d kidnapped was himself a notorious cutthroat. What would happen when he awakened on board the schooner, surrounded by the very gentlemen who’d set him afloat? Suppose a Pope in the ninth century loathed his predecessor, considered him a monstrous criminal, and wanted nothing more than the opportunity to put him on trial. What would that look like: one Pope prosecuting another? You might be surprised—it got a little strange. Say an Indian chief addresses an audience of white folk, who celebrate the completion of a railroad that crosses his ancestral lands. What would he say to them? And what if his translator, a half-breed collaborator, twisted his words? Well, you can find out in this book of nine historical fiction stories. Nine historical and biblical characters are given a little time in the sun, before being re-interred in the history books. Their stories are full of surprises, and full of resonance for our own time.