"I consider Simenon to be the best realist, better than Zola or Balzac." - Anaïs Nin The young Oscar Donadieu, heir to an influential shipping dynasty, turns his back on his family and sets off for Tahiti. Here, he wants to live as a "banana tourist," as the locals call people like him – in harmony with nature, far from home and civilization. After a strenuous sea voyage, with a murderer on board and various unpleasant encounters, he spends a few days among European "regulars," before he is drawn into the wilderness. However, his self-chosen solitude is unexpectedly interrupted... With an afterword by Thomas Bockelmann.