praise for

The Shark God

(published in Canada as The Last Heathen)

Exquisite writing

Publishers Weekly

Brilliant! The best non-fiction book I have read so far this year

The Telegraph

An embrace of myth-making — religious, secular and political

The New York Times

Utterly astounding

Maclean's

Winner,

Charles Taylor Prize for Literary Non-fiction 2005

"The Shark God, a travel story as dark and twisted as one might ever wish to hear … reaches a superb climax with some apocalyptically page-turning scenes. In this savage environment, where life is sandwiched between fire-breathing volcanoes and giant ocean waves, the people grab all the mythic help they can, spinning life-saving rafts from all the spiritual flotsam and jetsam that the world throws at them. I finished this book with a deep respect for their wisdom and common sense."

The Guardian

Read the full review here

"As both traveler and writer, Montgomery is a thoughtful and entertaining guide, and his story has rich layers of history and anthropology. … “The Shark God” is an embrace of myth-making — religious, secular and political. 'Myth, like love, is a decision,' Montgomery writes. 'What it answers is longing. What it demands is faith. What it opens is possibility.'"

New York Times

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"Brilliant! The Shark God is, in short, a challenging, exhilarating ride and read. Spiritual affairs in Melanesia prove to be as rich, weird, squalid, violent and engrossing as just about anything else on God's earth….go out and buy what is the best non-fiction book I have read so far this year.

Anthony Peregrine, The Telegraph

Read the full review here

"Beautifully written and utterly astounding....A study in the transforming power of myth, and the unpredictable consequences of colliding cultures, The Last Heathen is superb."

Maclean's Magazine

"On this voyage into the unknown, intensely described in rich and varied prose, Montgomery discovers extraordinary mythologies, unsettling rites and feverish kastom maintained by bizarre characters. These are vivid portraits that leap off the page. This uniquely disturbing travel book should be required reading for anyone with a sense of unease at the development of the modern world.

Geographical

(Magazine of the Royal Geographic Society)

"An irresistable adventure in discovery, a journey into rough terrain and a revelation of the power of ancestral stories across cultural divides."

Jurors

Charles Taylor Prize for Literary Non-fiction

(The Last Heathen won the Charles Taylor Prize for 2005)

"With this sprawling, complicated book that has at its narrative heart the impossibly difficult corner of the world called Melanesia, comes a display of a very real and memorable new talent. … a script as delicate and impressively beautiful as any essay of exploration that I have read in recent years. ...The endurance he displayed on his travels was admirable, the adventures he survived were tremendous, and the quality of his prose seems matched only by the wisdom of his observations."

Simon Winchester,

The Globe and Mail

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“Charles Montgomery is a great reporter with inborn faculties of empathy and understanding for the culture and psychology of the people he meets in his fascinating journey.”

Ryszard Kapuscinski

author of The Emperor and Shah of Shahs

The Shark God offers a heady blend of history, memoir, and anthropology.

Entertainment Weekly

“With exquisite writing, Montgomery lovingly captures the beauty and the horrors, the mysteries and the shams of the people and places he visits. His is a skeptical eye, and Montgomery is resistant to the miracles the people wish to show him, which admittedly are not terribly convincing, but he doggedly persists, seeking to be convinced of something, anything.”

Publishers Weekly

"Even though Charles Montgomery lays bare the truth behind the romantic notions we have long held about the South Pacific — a fiction of noble savages and exoticism that spanned his own great grandfather's missionary work to  Robinson Crusoe, all the way up to the present day with the Trader Vic's/Tiki Lounge/headhunter kitsch of Survivor — he is no kill joy, skillfully managing to imbue his tale with suspense, sadness, wonder, and grace. The Shark God is just a hair-raisingly good read. "

David Rakoff

author of Don't Get Too Comfortable

His observations on these conflicting and complementary faiths are as insightful as his adventures are breathtaking. This beautifully written snapshot of cultures struggling to exist in the modern world as they both overcome and adapt to outside influences is recommended for all public and academic libraries.

Library Journal

One of the year's 100 best books

The Globe and Mail

Editor's Pick:

One of the top 25 non-fiction books of the year

Amazon.ca

“A new voice of great skill with an acute sense of adventure, a feeling for people and place, and a thirst for discovery…An extraordinary debut: well researched, compellingly written, self-revelatory and deeply sensitive to the varied truths of the South Pacific world it explores.”

Wade Davis, National Geographic explorer-in-residence, author of The Serpent and the Rainbow and One River

"By far the best book of the whole year, perhaps in any field. ... Adventurous, thorough in his research — the history is as compelling as the journey — and sensitive to the customs and character of the people he meets, Montgomery has produced a remarkable work. If you seek only one gift this Christmas, ask that it be The Last Heathen."

The Toronto Star

"...one of the most thought-provoking accounts of contemporary religion published in the last few years"

Quill & Quire

"A fantastic cast of characters populate this book, and Montgomery is as adept chronicling his often unpleasant journey as he is discussing the dark implications of myth, magic and belief."

Outpost Magazine

"Of the many reasons to vigorously recommend The Last Heathen ... perhaps none is more persuasive than Montgomery's quietly astonishing way with words...an immensely fulfilling read."

Amazon.ca

"...a mythic work [that] helps readers understand their place in the world and their relationships with one another."

The Vancouver Sun