About The Book

In 1955, armed with a penknife and the instructions “Keep the river on your right,” the Brooklyn-born painter Tobias Schneebaum set off into the trackless jungles of Peru in search of a tribe of cannibals. This classic account of his months with the Akaramas—shaving and painting his body, hunting with Stone Age weapons, sleeping with his brother warriors in the warmth of the body-pile—is a fiercely beautiful journey into the uncharted habitations of the flesh and spirit.

Praise

“Since Gide, no journal has spoken more clearly or meditatively of the cannibal, civilized self.” —Hortense Calisher

“Authentic, deeply moving, sensuously written, and incredibly haunting, an exploration of realms of personal identity that emerges on the far side of Conrad’s Heart of Darkness. Engrossing and strangely beautiful.” —Publishers Weekly

“A beautiful and an unsettling book, . . . and a truly fascinating anthropological report on a primitive culture.” —St. Louis Post-Dispatch

“A first book of fantastic subject matter and consummate craftsmanship, probably unlike any other book you have read.” —The Plain Dealer

“A beautiful, often lyrical diary about cannibals? Yes.” —The Minneapolis Tribune