J. Maarten Troost – The Sex Lives of Cannibals. Adrift in the Equatorial Pacific

The laugh-out-loud true story of a harrowing and hilarious two-year odyssey in the distant South Pacific island nation of Kiribati – possibly the Worst Place on Earth.

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 gradute 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 resteless and lacked direction, and the idea of dropping everything and moving to the ends of 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 – all in a country where the only music to be heard for miles is „La Macarena”. He and his stalwart girlfriend, Sylvia, spend the next two years battling incompetent government officials, alarmingly large critters, erratic electricty, and a paucity of food options (including the Great Beer Crisis); and contending witz bizzare cast of 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).
With The Sex Lives of Cannibals, Maarten Troost has delivered one of the most original, rip-roaringly travellogues in years – one that will leave you thankful for staples of American civilization such as coffee, regular showers, and tabloid news, and will provide the ultimate vicrious adventure.   źródło opisu: Broadway Books, 2004