1913, the South Pacific. Even here, on the other side of the world, the looming First World War threatens to seriously alter the existing balance of power. The mysterious Monk, the leader of a powerful pirate syndicate, seeks to profit from this, with the help of the experienced sailor Corto Maltese. However, the situation soon spirals out of control, and the eruption of a global conflict completely upsets the plans...

In 1976, the book 'Ballad of the Salt Sea' won the prize for 'Best Work by a Foreign Author' at the International Comics Festival in Angoulême, France.

Among the thousands of characters created over more than a century of comics history, only a few have achieved mythic status, becoming one of the calling cards of the ninth art form. Corto Maltese is one of them. A skilled sailor, an incorrigible romantic, a fiery revolutionary, a spontaneous philosopher, a noble pirate, and an eternal adventurer, he was created in 1967 by the Italian author Hugo Pratt (1927–1995). His adventures, in the tradition of Robert Louis Stevenson, Joseph Conrad, and Herman Melville, have inspired generations of readers around the globe. A timeless man, a true citizen of the world, he is equally at home in the blue lagoons of the South Seas and the snowy expanses of Siberia, the alleys of Hong Kong and the avenues of Buenos Aires... Ireland and Brazil, Samarkand and Venice, Ecuador and the Caribbean, Basel and Zanzibar—these are just a few of the stops in Captain Cortot's amazing odyssey.

The Cortot Maltese series has won numerous awards in Italy, France, Belgium, and Germany. In 2005, Hugo Pratt was inducted into the Will Eisner Hall of Fame in the United States.

Author: Pratt Hugo
Publishing House: Boomkniga
Year: 2017
Number of pages: 168
Cover type: hardback
Translator: Khachaturov Mikhail
Illustrator: Pratt Hugo
Country of origin: Italy
Age group: 13-15, young adults, adults