In the twilight of the Napoleonic Wars, the Mediterranean is a tense and shifting sea, haunted by the ghosts of past conflicts. Into this uneasy peace sails Peyrol, an aging French rover. A former privateer and gun-runner—a man who has lived by his wits and cutlass across every ocean— he seeks only a quiet refuge for his final years. He finds it in a secluded farmhouse on the Giens peninsula, a place of seemingly simple routines and loyalties.
But escape from the world is an illusion. Peyrol’s haven is a strategic point for French agents plotting against the British fleet, and his presence becomes entangled with the fate of a young, brooding lieutenant, Real, and the innocent ward of the house, Arlette—a woman marked by the trauma of the Revolution’s violence.
When a British warship appears on the horizon, offering a chance for a decisive strike or a final escape, Peyrol is drawn back into the game of war he thought he had left behind. In this, his last novel, Joseph Conrad crafts a masterful tale of redemption and sacrifice. The Rover is a poignant and suspenseful story of an old man who must navigate one last, perfect act, reconciling a life of restless freedom with the unexpected claims of love, duty, and a country that has changed beyond recognition.
