The Sex Lives of Cannibals: Adrift in the Equatorial Pacific

Upon reaching the age of 26, Maarten Troost made the decision to abandon his career and relocate to Tarawa, a secluded island in the Republic of Kiribati's South Pacific. He had been accumulating pointless graduate degrees and enduring a string of temporary positions. His lack of direction and restlessness made the notion of leaving everything behind and traveling to the furthest corners of the planet alluring. He ought to have been more aware. The amusing tale of Troost's realization that Tarawa is not the idyllic island he had imagined is told in The Sex Lives of Cannibals.

Troost battles against a variety of dangerous germs, dirty oceans, poisonous fish, unrelenting, oppressive heat, and worst of all, no television or coffee. He falls into one hilarious misadventure after another. And today is just the start. Sunburned, malnourished, and racked with sea lice, Troost fights inept government officials, frighteningly big animals, unstable power, and a shortage of food for the next two years. Just before he returns to the culture shock of civilization, he battles a cast of eccentric local characters, such as "Half-Dead Fred" and the self-proclaimed Poet Laureate of Tarawa, a British drunkard who has never written a poem in his life. Eventually, he adjusts to the ups and downs of island life.

The Sex Lives of Cannibals is the ultimate vicarious journey, with the rollicking humor of Bill Bryson, the superb travel explanation of Paul Theroux, and a hipster edge of Troost's own. Even if they may never wish to visit Tarawa, readers will want to journey with Troost again and again.