Trawler by Redmond O’Hanlon

The book we’re plunging into this week is Trawler by Redmond O’Hanlon. Published in 2003 by Penguin Books, the book falls simultaneously into the twin categories of travel literature and creative non-fiction.

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.

Jazz! Bursts of aural lightning shoot through the room on a frenetic frequency, charging every listener with electric convulsions, forcing feet to tap rhythms on the beer-soaked floor and fingers to roll tiny drumbeats across the tables, little thumping echoes of brushed beats and imitations of walking bass lines. Mad squeals of tortured trumpets erupt from under the sweaty lights like passing birds calling down to earth: hear me, hear me, hear me. Jazz! Like a page out of a notebook from Sensation herself.