At the age of twenty-six, Maarten Troost—who had been pushing the snooze button on the alarm clock of life by racking up useless graduate degrees and muddling through a series of temp jobs—decided to pack up his flip-flops and move to Tarawa, a remote South Pacific island in the Republic of Kiribati. He was restless and lacked direction, and the idea of dropping everything and moving to the ends of the Earth was irresistibly romantic. He should have known better.

The Sex Lives of Cannibals tells the hilarious story of what happens when Troost discovers that Tarawa is not the island paradise he dreamed of. Falling into one amusing misadventure after another, Troost struggles through relentless, stifling heat, a variety of deadly bacteria, polluted seas, toxic fish, and worst of all, no television or coffee. And that’s just the first day.

Sunburned, emaciated, and stinging with sea lice, Troost spends the next two years battling incompetent government officials, alarmingly large critters, erratic electricity, and a paucity of food options. He contends with a cast of bizarre local characters, including “Half-Dead Fred” and the self-proclaimed Poet Laureate of Tarawa (a British drunkard who’s never written a poem in his life), and eventually settles into the ebb and flow of island life, just before his return to the culture shock of civilization.

With the rollicking wit of Bill Bryson, the brilliant travel exposition of Paul Theroux, and a hipster edge that is entirely Troost’s own, The Sex Lives of Cannibals is the ultimate vicarious adventure. Readers may never long to set foot on Tarawa, but they’ll want to travel with Troost time and time again.

reserved for concertina

thank you, abu!

you know how sometimes books are plugged as "laugh-out-loud funny"? well, this one actually had me laughing out loud from time to time - not quite on a bill bryson scale (which can cause non-stop laughing at times), but still....

also includes a lot of info on kiribati and its customs and economical problems. and it makes you NOT want to go there.

will return to abu (today).

recommended by concertina8 - will return it to abu after reading

quicki read, however I didn't laugh out loudly while reading. Nevertheless I learned some facts about Kiribati, its history and how to survive on and when drifting from an atoll.

Will be returned to allbookedup next week.

RELEASE NOTES:

Ladies Night in der Wäscherei - reserviert für allbookedup

back to my shelf

I tried very hard not to pick up lots and lots of books at the Convention, but how could I resist one with such an extraordinary name?

Travel journalism has never really appealed to me. I don't want to read about other people's holidays. However, I could not resist this one. The title is so odd, and the blurb made it sound like the complete opposite of the usual travel book... the author seemed to be describing a place nobody would ever want to visit!

Well, I really enjoyed his extraordinary tales of Kiribati life. I am amazed that Westerners manage to stay there for more than a month. Yet, despite the harsh realities of living on an atoll, the author conveys a huge fondness for the place. The islanders are quite obviously crazy (they throw used nappies on the beach and will not burn them, because they believe this will burn the baby's bottom!)but Maarten Troost clearly grew to love them and their strange customs.

I never want to visit the islands described in this book, but I enjoyed sharing Maarten's experiences.

RELEASE NOTES:

Taken along to a Bookcrossing meet, for a book swap game.

Won in a bookswap game today, they're always so much more fun when there's lots of stealing - which there was!
Nice to meet you smallbluepebble.

After a light weed of my groaning TBR shelves this one's going into my 'to be released' box.

Taking to the meet-up. If it's not taken from the availables table then it'll be left in the cafe or somewhere along elephant walk.