Philip Caputo's passion for travel and adventure was inspired by the works of Joseph Conrad, Jack London and Herman Melville, and through the years this passion has led to a rugged writer's life, filled with hair-raising experiences in the jungles of Vietnam, the rubble of Beirut, and the savannas of Africa. This is a collection of Caputo's essays. In "The Ahab Complex", he recalls a life-and-death struggle with a majestic giant blue marlin off the coast of Florida. He recounts his travels in Kenya's largest national park among the only lions to have a natural tendency to stalk and eat human beings, and where the accounts of their gruesome escapades invaded his dreams. In the title piece, he reflects on a harrowing trip down the Alaskan river that nearly claimed his son's life, and nature's indifference to human loss.