B. Traven – författare

Whoever survived the Yorikke could never be frightened any more during his lifetime by anythingStateless and stranded after he loses his passport, sailor Gerald Gales flees arrest and persecution across Europe, until he finally finds work on the Yorikke, a decrepit ‘death ship’ bound for destruction. Condemned to stoke the furnaces, Gales must navigate a labyrinth of surreal rules and the brutal realities of life at sea if he is to make it out alive. First published in 1926 and thought to bear the traces of the mysterious author B. Traven’s own experience of migrating to Mexico, The Death Ship is a darkly absurd, raging tale about what it takes to survive when life is cheap.

It seemed that even the jungle fell silent for a moment as if it wanted to help save a little childIn the depths of the Mexican jungle, American traveller Gerard Gales is hunting for alligators, when he comes across a small village along the banks of the Huayalexco. Invited into the local community, Gales joins a huge party, held just across the river. But tragedy strikes when a young boy suddenly disappears into the pitch-dark night. As the villagers grapple with their loss, they come together in the face of life’s harshest realities, and something unspoken is born. A work of vivid description and radical empathy, Traven’s 1929 novel is a moving portrait of consolation and belonging in a remote indigenous community.

'Gold is a very devilish sort of a thing, believe me, boys'Deep in the wild heart of Mexico’s Sierra Madre mountains lies treasure beyond reckoning, just waiting to be found by those who know where to look. Or so believe three Americans – Dobbs, Curtin and Howard – down on their luck and desperate for a way out. Teaming up on a perilous quest to hunt for gold, they soon find their fragile alliance tested, both by a band of local outlaws, and by their own greed. First published in 1927 and made into a classic film by John Huston, The Treasure of the Sierra Madre is a savagely ironic, anarchic cult novel about the price of ambition and the limits of endurance.