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Review
`A completely fascinating book. It opens up a forgotten corner of the world with tremendous flair and shrewd observation'
--William Boyd
`Wild Coast is funny, intelligent, revelatory' --Joseph O'Neill, author of Netherland
`Great for those looking to explore a South America far from the well-trodden Gringo trail.' --Real Travel
`A fascinating journey... Gimlette's extensive research has given him access to an intoxicating level of detail' --Wanderlust
`Gimlette brings history to life. He artfully merges assiduous research with a storyteller's gift' --Oliver Balch, Guardian
'An evocative writer' --Daily Mail
'A talented writer... he conveys the region's horror stories with a healthy dose of humour, knowledge, sincerity and poetry.' --Traveller
'Remarkable. Gimlette's descriptions of landscapes are often hauntingly beautiful, his sense of humour engagingly dead-pan' --Spectator
'Gimlette has an innate ability to bring scenes alive on the page... well written, insightful and gripping' --Geographical
'The best kind of travel writing: tough-minded and humorous, but above all thoughtful.' --Ian Thomson
`A fascinating tale of rebels and remote jungle, snakes and slavery. Perfect armchair adventure.' --Tom Robbins, FT
`A superb traveler's tale in which yesterday has far more heft than the fleeting happenings of today.' --Wall Street Journal
'A spirited historical, political and personal travelogue guaranteed to arouse the adventurous reader's wanderlust' --New York Times
--William Boyd
`Wild Coast is funny, intelligent, revelatory' --Joseph O'Neill, author of Netherland
`Great for those looking to explore a South America far from the well-trodden Gringo trail.' --Real Travel
`A fascinating journey... Gimlette's extensive research has given him access to an intoxicating level of detail' --Wanderlust
`Gimlette brings history to life. He artfully merges assiduous research with a storyteller's gift' --Oliver Balch, Guardian
'An evocative writer' --Daily Mail
'A talented writer... he conveys the region's horror stories with a healthy dose of humour, knowledge, sincerity and poetry.' --Traveller
'Remarkable. Gimlette's descriptions of landscapes are often hauntingly beautiful, his sense of humour engagingly dead-pan' --Spectator
'Gimlette has an innate ability to bring scenes alive on the page... well written, insightful and gripping' --Geographical
'The best kind of travel writing: tough-minded and humorous, but above all thoughtful.' --Ian Thomson
`A fascinating tale of rebels and remote jungle, snakes and slavery. Perfect armchair adventure.' --Tom Robbins, FT
`A superb traveler's tale in which yesterday has far more heft than the fleeting happenings of today.' --Wall Street Journal
'A spirited historical, political and personal travelogue guaranteed to arouse the adventurous reader's wanderlust' --New York Times
Book Description
In this compelling and elegant travel memoir, John Gimlette returns to Guyana, the Wild Coast in South America, to discover his ancestral colonial history - one of brutal, cruel and often uncomfortable truths
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
A fascinating journey through South America's Wild Coast. Seldom explored, this is a land of forests and rivers where nine tenths of the inhabitants live in a narrow strip along the coast. As he travels from Guyana (formerly British Guyana, through Suriname (formerly Dutch Guyana) to French Guyana, Gimlette introduces us to a rich cast of characters, past and present. We meet outlaws, Amerindian hunters, runaway slaves and Marxist dictators. We retrace the progress of a Georgian slave revolt, discover a French penal colony, and revisit Jonestown where in 1978 over 900 Americans committed suicide. Gimlette's writing is meticulously researched, fluent and rich in detail. Often Wild Coast reads more like a novel than a travel/history book. My favourite parts are where Gimlette allows himself to become part of the story he tells, often with hilarious results.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
A gripping travelogue of a part of the world most people know very little about. The book starts with British Guyana, followed by Suriname and French Guiana. I would rank this right alongside Gimlette's debut, The Tomb of the Inflatable Pig, a similar book about Paraguay.
Thoroughly recommended.
Thoroughly recommended.
8 of 9 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
As a big fan of Gimlette's book on Paraguay, At The Tomb Of The Inflatable Pig: Travels through Paraguay, I came to Wild Coast expecting something hugely enjoyable, moving, eye-opening and memorable. And that's exactly what you get with Wild Coast.
Gimlette's route takes him through what must be a contender for the wildest and strangest region on earth - the Guianas. Most of it is dense jungle - what some might call a fabulously rich ecosystem, but I would just find terrifying. It has it all - anacondas, piranhas, spiders, jaguars that regularly eat people, and that's before you get started on the disgusting and aggressive insect life. For the less squeamish, there is plenty to shock in the people Gimlette meets and the story of the region he tells. Can any other one place claim to have inspired such craziness and extremity, from the Raleigh-inspired search for the mythical city of gold, through murderous slaves, planters and dictators to the Jonestown massacre, with France's notorious Devil's Island penal colony on the way.
Gimlette's grasp of the history is masterful, but it is also cleverly woven into the story of his modern-day journey and the people he meets, all of whom he seems to have charmed into giving away something interesting about themselves and their relationship to the place.
Sometimes travelling in the footsteps of Evelyn Waugh's 1930s trip (which inspired A Handful of Dust (Penguin Modern Classics), the book that means you can never read Dickens again), Gimlette seems almost always unperturbed by the tarantulas - `like a large hairy hand', and all the other beasts, as well as by some of the frankly terrifying people he meets. A brave journey, superbly told - the kind of book you don't want to end.
Gimlette's route takes him through what must be a contender for the wildest and strangest region on earth - the Guianas. Most of it is dense jungle - what some might call a fabulously rich ecosystem, but I would just find terrifying. It has it all - anacondas, piranhas, spiders, jaguars that regularly eat people, and that's before you get started on the disgusting and aggressive insect life. For the less squeamish, there is plenty to shock in the people Gimlette meets and the story of the region he tells. Can any other one place claim to have inspired such craziness and extremity, from the Raleigh-inspired search for the mythical city of gold, through murderous slaves, planters and dictators to the Jonestown massacre, with France's notorious Devil's Island penal colony on the way.
Gimlette's grasp of the history is masterful, but it is also cleverly woven into the story of his modern-day journey and the people he meets, all of whom he seems to have charmed into giving away something interesting about themselves and their relationship to the place.
Sometimes travelling in the footsteps of Evelyn Waugh's 1930s trip (which inspired A Handful of Dust (Penguin Modern Classics), the book that means you can never read Dickens again), Gimlette seems almost always unperturbed by the tarantulas - `like a large hairy hand', and all the other beasts, as well as by some of the frankly terrifying people he meets. A brave journey, superbly told - the kind of book you don't want to end.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
A history and geography lesson
Extraordinarily detailed research has gone into this book. And Mr Gimlette is really prepared to get his feet dirty finding out all about these three countries. Read more
Published 3 months ago by pscoptera
John Gimlette does it again
Fans of Gimlette's trademark blend of dark subject-matter, upbeat adventure, witty commentary, and serious scholarship - rejoice. Read more
Published 6 months ago by KK
Compelling & Enjoyable
Travel books rarely make compelling reading. They are often long on gratuitous detail and short on direction to the real soul of the area that is their subject. Read more
Published 7 months ago by Mr. L. Ross
A CULTURED READ
I have travelled extensively in South America, however, these 3 countires on the 'wild coast' have so far escaped my attention. Read more
Published 8 months ago by global gilroy
A Glimpse at a destination out of the ordinary.
I'm a British descendant of Afro Guyanese parents. just returned from Guyana dealing with deceased families land sale, reading Wild Coast couldn't arrive at a better time. Read more
Published 9 months ago by R. Pieters
Maroons and massacres - a fascinating read
'Wild Coast is a really good read. It's obviously well researched and written in a very approachable style that quickly immerses you in the people, history, locations and... Read more
Published 11 months ago by tryfan40
A great read - adventure and interest on every page.
Mr Gimlette's power to observe and record detail is both fascinating and engrossing - never more so than when he is is describing people in strange lands. Read more
Published 12 months ago by R. M. Lane
Inspiring
I absolutely loved this book. You truly will want to pack up and head off into the jungle. Definitely recommend it!
Published 12 months ago by Richard Poulter
Fascinating
A really fascinating book about a little-known part of South America. Gimlette has done a great job in setting the historical context and background to what he discovers and sees... Read more
Published 13 months ago by Seb F
Detailed but very dry
This is one of the most exhaustively researched bits of travel writing I've read for a long time. The problem however is there is so much history and in so much detail it reads... Read more
Published 13 months ago by Andrew S
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