The noble kidnapper

In *The Noble Kidnapper*, Antônio Torres tells the story of René Duguay-Trouin, a French corsair and character of many adventures whose sword subdued ships, seized cities, intimidated wills, and won hearts. After the success of *My Dear Cannibal*—winner of the Passo Fundo Zaffari & Bourbon Literature Prize in 2001—whose main character was the iconic Cunhambebe, Antônio Torres couldn't resist researching the life of another important but often forgotten figure in the history of Rio de Janeiro. "This daring corsair of Louis XIV, who filled Rio with terror and fear. I traveled far and wide in pursuit of his trails, twice visiting his homeland, Saint-Malo, in French Brittany, and also La Rochelle, from where Duguay-Trouin departed," reveals the author. René Duguay-Trouin, one of the most audacious figures of his time, arrived in Brazil in a squadron of 18 ships, with nearly 6,000 men and 700 cannons, to plunder the gold being shipped from Rio de Janeiro and bound for Portugal. He successfully executed his plan and held the city hostage for fifty days while awaiting payment of the ransom to return it to its inhabitants. After filling the ships with Rio's gold to depart, leaving it in a state of disrepair, Duguay-Trouin's successful invasion served as a form of personal revenge for him—a year earlier, another French corsair, Jean-François Duclerc, had attempted to invade Rio with five ships and a thousand men, but failed, ending up imprisoned and mysteriously murdered—in addition to representing a significant profit for France. Duguay-Trouin's motivations were far broader than those of his predecessor. He intended to shift the axis of the War of the Spanish Succession in Europe, as France, battling at sea against a powerful coalition of eight countries, had suffered greatly in that war. With its navy in its death throes, attacking Rio would be a way to eliminate France's enemies gradually, from the outskirts, far from its military might. In other words, attacking Rio, at the time Portugal's most flourishing colony, was to attack Portugal, a perennial ally of the English and part of the European coalition at war with France. With a less than heroic end, the story of Duguay-Trouin, a hero in France and a villain in Brazil, harks back to a time of adventure and misfortune, of sailors, pirates, and excitement. The Noble Kidnapper is a novel that leaves the reader reeling, amid so many wars, gales, storms, shipwrecks, heroism, dreams, and human sacrifices, especially in the age of splendor and misery of the Sun King.