Tales from the Torrid Zone by Alexander Frater.

“The tropics”: an imaginary band that wraps around the earth about 23 degrees north and south of the equator, bound between the Tropic of Cancer and the Tropic of Capricorn. Countries in the zone include Cuba, Jamaica, Suriname, Ecuador, the Solomon Islands, Hawaii, Tahiti, Tonga, Fiji, Senegal, Egypt, Sudan, Thailand, Madagascar, Borneo, Papua New Guinea, and so on.

The book’s author, Alexander Frater is the son of a Scottish Presbyterian missionary couple (and grandson of one of the first European missionaries to many of the islands in Melanesia). He was born on the small island of Irikiki and flitted around the tropics for many of his formative years. He eventually relocated to the UK, where he became travel correspondent for The Observer. In his role with The Observer and other publications, Frater returned to the tropics often, satisfying his ingrained need for the heat, humidity, and inherent madness of what he calls the Torrid Zone.

Tales from the Torrid Zone follows Frater on many visits to tropical regions around the globe, including a trip that revisits his birthplace and retraces some family footsteps. He recounts a journey as part of a BBC film crew, flying on a single-prop plane through parts of Africa, a river-excursion down the Irawaddy in Burma, and a five-star cruise on the Amazon. His travels are far from the typical misadventures of a young traveler bumming around beaches with a copy of the Lonely Planet guide in hand. Frater is closer to Michael Palin, traveling simultaneously through history and folklore, chasing ancient stories through encounters with innumerable characters who help him recreate scenes not set down in history books. He visits the birthplaces of surfing and bungee-jumping, follows the path of a lesser-known European explorer, recounts tales of Gauguin, the painter who spent his final years in the tropics, and has dinner with the Queen of Tonga.

Frater’s writing is exceptional and he has an incredible ability to capture interesting dialogue. On his travels, he has no trouble mixing with anyone and everyone, and is evidently an attentive listener. He relates countless stories told to him by indigenous locals, other travelers, or ex-pats putting down roots in some tropical clime. Frater leaps from story to story and place to place in a way that at first is a little frustrating to follow, but by the end of the book, the chaotic approach is an ingrained and essential part of what the tropics represent. The Torrid Zone can be a bit crazy. Heat, humidity, and clashing cultures—watch those Missionaries come—all add up to a life that’s lived on a slightly manic edge. The pace is either slow and tepid, made sluggish by the heat, or fast, manic and crazy, like the rhythms of Carnival or pounding tribal drums. These two velocities are so much a part of life in the tropics, that Frater’s book reads in exactly the same way.

Apart from Frater’s own recollections of his upbringing and ancestry in the tropics, there is one story that ties the others together. Frater decides on one trip to donate a church bell in honour of his father and grandfather to the small town where he was born. The mishaps he encounters during the many-year process are comical, ludicrous, and almost unbelievable. His final journey back to Iririki with the bell is documented by a BBC Radio crew—the radio program later wins a national radio award—and his description in the book of the many misadventures is fantastic. This story, which is told in parts throughout the book, has the effect of personalizing all the experiences Frater has in the tropics. He might live in London now, but these islands are still his home, and his connection to them remains strong.

He dines with royalty, interviews the likes of Sir David Attenborough, and travels with a BBC film crew in countries where a BBC ballpoint pen is worth its weight in gold. And yet Frater is a modest guide. Perhaps more importantly, he is an informative and entertaining guide. Tales from the Torrid Zone is a memoir of three generations lived in the heat of the tropics. It is also a written portrait of the tropical region that is worthy of Gauguin.

So there you have it. It’s a combination of armchair travel, full-immersion in the tropics through the eyes of a knowing local, and historic saga. A good read. A warming story.

Set list:

Sigur Ros

Caribou - Sun

Grizzly Bear - Service Bell

Jon & Roy - By the Sea

Beck - Volcano

Broken Social Scene - Late Nineties Rock for the Missionaries

Modest Mouse - Jesus Christ Was an Only Child

Clap Your Hands Say Yeah - The Skin of my Yellow Country

Latin Playboys - Crayon Sun

Federico Aubele - El Amor de Este Pueblo

Phoenix - Love Like a Sunset

Broken Social Scene - Looks Just Like the Sun

Karkwa - Le Pyromane

The Kinks - Lazy Old Sun

Johnny Scott - Race the Sun

Sergio Mendes & Brasil 77 - After Sunrise

Dusty Springfield - Son of a Preacher Man

Bat For Lashes - Tahiti

Lhasa - Los Peces

Up, Bustle & Out - Lyrica Volcanica

K'naan - The African Way

Damon Albarn - Bamako City

Ladysmith Black Mombazo - Ngwaka Nyambe Nkonyane

The Cat Empire - Lost Song (Australia)

Groove Armada - At the River

Monkey - Sandy the River Demon

Gorillaz - Hong Kong

Caribou - Sundialing

Weezer - Island in the Sun

Sidney Bechet - Magic Island

Sergio Mendes - Capoeira Do Brasil

Yo La Tengo - Beach Party Tonight

Manu Dibango - New Bell

Mercury Rev - Across Yer Ocean

Sidney Bechet - Tropical Moon

Beck - Tropicalia

Riceboy Sleeps - Indian Summer