At the age of 26, Maarten Troost, after racking up useless graduate degrees and muddling through a series of temp jobs, decided to 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. This book 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. He contends with a cast of bizarre local characters and eventually settles into the ebb and flow of island life, just before his return to the culture shock of civilization.--From publisher description
