Tayler’s haunting travel adventure follows his 1,100-mile trip up the Congo River on a barge teeming with merchants, deckhands, prostitutes, mothers, spiritual followers, fishermen, and children. Readers feel the oppressive heat hanging wet in the night air over the floating marketplace, and shudder at the slither and crunch of the stir-fried worms that Tayler reluctantly injests. On his trek downriver, Tayler is met with even greater challenges as he battles for survival, paddling through the adverse elements on a tiny pirogue. At times lost in the fog-covered backwaters, at others faced by tribes of people whose ancestors were murdered by those with white skin, Tayler’s level of comfort is pushed to its limits, transforming his adventure into a journey of discovery.
