Publishers Weekly
01/29/2018
Travel writer Hoffman (Savage Harvest) uses his own travels to the Pacific island of Borneo to frame biographies of Swiss environmentalist Bruno Manser and American art dealer Michael Palmieri, two Westerners whose activities on the remote island significantly affected the land and its people. Though Manser and Palmieri never actually met, they both found their calling in Borneo in the 1970s and 1980s. Palmieri, “a buccaneer” drawn to the island by wanderlust, became a distinguished collector and dealer of tribal art, collecting ancient pieces such as a Dayak carving of a powerful guardian spirit. Manser, meanwhile, was “a do-gooder” drawn to the self-sustenance and communal elements of the island. He spent over a decade living with the Penan tribe in Sarawak, and became an activist in cultural preservation, fighting against the destruction of the Penan land by logging conglomerates. Hoffman, who followed the footsteps of both men, interweaves cliff-hanging scenes, such as Manser suffering a pit viper bite and Palmieri smuggling artifacts, with a history of colonialism of the island. The result is a deeply informative anthropological study disguised as an adventure tale. (Mar.)
From the Publisher
An expertly wrought tale of exploration, adventure and mischief. ... Hoffman does an excellent job entering the worlds and minds of two men who did not fit in and who carved out their own destinies. ... At once cautionary and inspiring; adventure travel at its best.” — Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
“The Last Wild Men of Borneo is the best book about the ‘Western hunger for Eastern solace,’ as Carl Hoffman neatly puts it, you’ll probably ever read. ... Eloquent.” — William Finnegan, Pulitzer Prize winning author of Barbarian Days
“A marvelously told and important story: Carl Hoffman guides us on a compelling and disturbing journey in the footsteps of two Western adventurers who penetrated to the wildest heart of Borneo.” — Peter Stark, author of Astoria: John Jacob Astor and Thomas Jefferson’s Lost Pacific Empire
“A work of remarkable empathy, not only with the two hard-charging Westerners but also with the indigenous people they cultivated. … Quite a story—exciting, funny and tragic—and Hoffman tells it extraordinarily well.” — Washington Post
“Compelling. … A first-rate adventure story. … Part of the magic of this book [is] that in the hazy equatorial air of a place peopled by such outsized characters, anything was possible.” — Outside magazine
“I finished The Last Wild Men of Borneo in one long delicious gulp. ... A shimmering cornucopia of adventure, biography, mystery, tragedy.” — Nicholas Shakespeare, author of Bruce Chatwin and In Tasmania
“A real-life adventure tale sure to delight fans of David Grann (The Lost City of Z) and Jon Krakauer (Into Thin Air, Into the Wild).” — Christian Science Monitor
“Compelling and haunting, a story of lofty ideals and base desires, a deeply personal story written by a man who loves Borneo and who struggles to understand the forces that threaten to tear it apart.” — Booklist (starred review)
“Fascinating. … [Hoffman] knows how to tell a suspenseful story.” — Columbus Dispatch
“Carl Hoffman’s thrilling The Last Wild Men of Borneo explores both the allure and dangers of the world’s most untamed environment. A mesmerizing tale of two men who break their bonds with civilization in pursuit of deeper meaning - and the tragedy that befalls one of them.” — Joshua Hammer, author of The Bad-Ass Librarians of Timbuktu
“A true, jaw-dropping story that pulls you in with a shiver. ... Using great details in these parallel narratives and a perfectly-worked ending, Hoffman carefully preserves two mysteries: one with a contented life, and one in death.” — QC Times
“[Hoffman] paints a vivid character portrait of the two adventurers while detailing the incredible splendor of the unique region. ... An exciting tale of Borneo’s rich history and two modern-day treasure hunters who followed their dreams.” — BookPage
“A gifted, suspenseful storyteller. … Compelling.” — Minneapolis Star Tribune
“Compelling. … Hoffman has a journalist’s nose for a good story and he writes with an assuredness that makes for a good read. This is a tale of high adventure, of exotic lands, risky escapades, narrow escapes, and rich rewards.” — Jakarta Post
“A deeply informative anthropological study disguised as an adventure tale.” — Publishers Weekly
Washington Post
A work of remarkable empathy, not only with the two hard-charging Westerners but also with the indigenous people they cultivated. … Quite a story—exciting, funny and tragic—and Hoffman tells it extraordinarily well.
William Finnegan
The Last Wild Men of Borneo is the best book about the ‘Western hunger for Eastern solace,’ as Carl Hoffman neatly puts it, you’ll probably ever read. ... Eloquent.
Booklist (starred review)
Compelling and haunting, a story of lofty ideals and base desires, a deeply personal story written by a man who loves Borneo and who struggles to understand the forces that threaten to tear it apart.
Outside Magazine
Compelling. … A first-rate adventure story. … Part of the magic of this book [is] that in the hazy equatorial air of a place peopled by such outsized characters, anything was possible.
Peter Stark
A marvelously told and important story: Carl Hoffman guides us on a compelling and disturbing journey in the footsteps of two Western adventurers who penetrated to the wildest heart of Borneo.
Joshua Hammer
Carl Hoffman’s thrilling The Last Wild Men of Borneo explores both the allure and dangers of the world’s most untamed environment. A mesmerizing tale of two men who break their bonds with civilization in pursuit of deeper meaning - and the tragedy that befalls one of them.
Columbus Dispatch
Fascinating. … [Hoffman] knows how to tell a suspenseful story.
Nicholas Shakespeare
I finished The Last Wild Men of Borneo in one long delicious gulp. ... A shimmering cornucopia of adventure, biography, mystery, tragedy.
Christian Science Monitor
A real-life adventure tale sure to delight fans of David Grann (The Lost City of Z) and Jon Krakauer (Into Thin Air, Into the Wild).
QC Times
A true, jaw-dropping story that pulls you in with a shiver. ... Using great details in these parallel narratives and a perfectly-worked ending, Hoffman carefully preserves two mysteries: one with a contented life, and one in death.
BookPage
[Hoffman] paints a vivid character portrait of the two adventurers while detailing the incredible splendor of the unique region. ... An exciting tale of Borneo’s rich history and two modern-day treasure hunters who followed their dreams.
Minneapolis Star Tribune
A gifted, suspenseful storyteller. … Compelling.
Jakarta Post
Compelling. … Hoffman has a journalist’s nose for a good story and he writes with an assuredness that makes for a good read. This is a tale of high adventure, of exotic lands, risky escapades, narrow escapes, and rich rewards.
Washington Post
A work of remarkable empathy, not only with the two hard-charging Westerners but also with the indigenous people they cultivated. … Quite a story—exciting, funny and tragic—and Hoffman tells it extraordinarily well.
Outside magazine
Compelling. … A first-rate adventure story. … Part of the magic of this book [is] that in the hazy equatorial air of a place peopled by such outsized characters, anything was possible.
QC Times
A true, jaw-dropping story that pulls you in with a shiver. ... Using great details in these parallel narratives and a perfectly-worked ending, Hoffman carefully preserves two mysteries: one with a contented life, and one in death.
Library Journal
10/15/2017
While Swiss environmentalist Bruno Manser was helping Borneo's Penan tribe battle multinational logging conglomerates (he was declared an enemy of the state and vanished in 2000), American Michael Palmieri was getting rich by buying up Borneo artworks for pennies and selling them for a fortune. Following the New York Times best-selling Savage Harvest; with a 100,000-copy first printing.
Kirkus Review
★ 2017-12-24
An expertly wrought tale of exploration, adventure, and mischief by Hoffman (Savage Harvest: A Tale of Cannibals, Colonialism, and Michael Rockefeller's Tragic Quest for Primitive Art, 2014, etc.), who returns to the South Pacific island of Borneo to tell it.The "last wild men of Borneo" are not the headhunters or circus freaks of yore but instead two foreigners, one Swiss and one American, who entered into the rainforest and the territory of little-known people and carved out different fortunes for themselves. Bruno Manser arrived in 1983, looking for something outside himself; he had resisted the draft, bounced around among mountains and coastlines, and found his calling fighting the logging companies that were busily clear-cutting the vast old-growth forests of the interior. The companies won, for, as the author writes, "the untouched forests of Borneo are gone." The question that occupies the author is this: what happened to Manser, who inspired a near-cultlike movement and commanded the loyalty of many admirers in the outside world, "surrounded by sycophants and followers who couldn't say no to him"? As with his book on Michael Rockefeller, Hoffman is fascinated by the possibilities of someone who simply walked into the jungle and disappeared: did those headhunters get him? Was he murdered by loggers? The other wild man is American art collector Michael Palmieri who, as the anthropologists say, irrevocably changed the culture of the true "wild people" of Borneo by introducing the market to them. For decades, he has bought and sold Dayak and other ethnic art, perhaps against international laws in the trade of cultural goods, even as he has found himself unable to live among his own people. The two stories do not always neatly track, but Hoffman does an excellent job entering the worlds and minds of two men who did not fit in and who carved out their own destinies—if, of course, in other people's homelands.At once cautionary and inspiring; adventure travel at its best.
