In the 1930s a young Thor Heyerdhal spent one year and a half in the Marquesas, as part of a project of what we could call today experimental archaeology. He and his wife lived as low-tech a life as possible,and later Heyerdahl wrote a book on the experience, called Fatu Hiva, from the name of the island they were living on. The book was published in 1974.

Sixty-odd years after the Heyerdhals’ stay in the Marquesas, J. Maarten Troost and his girlfriend did something similar, and spent two years on a small island in Kiribati. Their experiences went into a book called The Sex Lives of Cannibals, that was published exactly thirty years after Fatu Hiva (a coincidence, most certainly).

The postman just delivered a mystery package containing pristine copy of Troost’s book this morning. A gift from a friend (thank you!), I’ve been curious about it ever since I learned of its existence.
This is going to be a fun weekend.

The book also goes to expand the list of books here on my shelf that are prominently displayed just to shock my (rare) visitors.