Recommended novel: The Death Ship, by B. Traven

One of my favorite novels is The Treasure of the Sierra Madre by B. Traven, written in 1927. Recently, I read his 1926 novel, The Death Ship, and found it equally captivating and impressive. The plot revolves around a young American merchant sailor who, while on leave in Antwerp, misses his ship and subsequently struggles to survive. The novel’s theme reminds me of Orwell's Down and Out in Paris and London, because both explore survival in destitution, balancing of humor and harrowing intensity. (Very little is known about B. Traven, who was so publicity shy that he makes Thomas Pynchon seem like Jacqueline Susann.) — MF