Two years living on the island of Tarawa in the Republic of Kiribati in the Equatorial Pacific described with great humour and affection … a crazy thing to do, maybe a ‘hard’ paradise but a joy to read about.
Fantasised about quitting the 9-5? Walking away from credit card debt and student loans? Think living in the South Pacific for two years sounds like a perfect solution and perhaps even a winning idea for your first novel? Maarten Troost does just that, setting up as a devil-may-care islander while his girlfriend, Sylvia, gets to work on saving the planet, or at least a little part of it on an end-of-the-world atoll, Tarawa. Life on Tarawa resembles not so much paradise as a theatre of the absurd where planes fly with the aid of masking tape, Coconut Stalinism prevails as national government and Sylvia is co-opted by the CIA to spy on the Chinese. But abandoning continental hang-ups like barbequeing the local dogs and watching on as international industrial fishing trawlers plunder the world's richest tuna supply aren't so easy. Troost's hilarious and pointed sarcasm at the Western world's laughable hypocrisies, apocalyptic behaviour and insistence on trousers in equatorial heat, reveals that by following the locals and letting go one just might find a better way to live.
'It's refreshing to find a travel writer so honest...An engaging voice and a perky narrative' Sunday Times
'Troost's breezy style perfectly fits this take on life as a square peg on a flat sandbar in the Pacific' The Good Book Guide
Author
About J Maarten Troost
Born of Czech and Dutch parents, J. Maarten Troost was educated in the US and Canada and holds degrees in International Relations from Boston University and George Washington University. He spent two years in Kiribati in the Equatorial Pacific and upon his return was hired as a consultant by the World Bank. He currently lives in California with his wife and son.
