Romance Between Harvard Student and Ex-Cannibal Sparks Memoir

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
(Free-Press-Release.com) May 29, 2009 --

Huntington, NY / May 28, 2009 -- The Sophisticated Savage, an anthropological memoir by Carla Seidl, has just been released from Inner Hearth Books. The book follows the author, Harvard graduate Carla Seidl, to the Galapagos Islands of Ecuador, where she meets a local surfer named Fredy who tells her he used to be a cannibal in the Amazon Jungle. The two fall in love, and the author returns to the Islands several years later and she and Fredy travel to the Amazon to try to find his family. Seidl tells her story in a unique mixture of personal narrative, interview, and research, with the lens of investigating the idea of simplicity. She asks, “Are people in developed cultures really happier?”

“Meeting Fredy was the start of my beginning to seriously question whether I wanted to continue living in a highly developed society,” Seidl says. Since first traveling to the Galapagos Islands, Seidl has continued her search for the ideal lifestyle in other parts of the world, including the Caucasus country of Azerbaijan, where she served as a Peace Corps volunteer from 2006 to 2008.

With its investigation of the recent history of the Huaorani tribe and its reflections on complex versus primitive cultures, The Sophisticated Savage, which is Seidl’s first book, is more than just a coming-of-age story. Creative Byline writes, "...this merging of an academic approach with a romantic treatise....is very well done, very sophisticated and perceptive. Also very honest....well-written and thoroughly engaging."

The Sophisticated Savage is currently available from Lulu.com and will be available from other major online outlets by August 2009. For more information, see www.thesophisticatedsavage.info or www.carlaseidl.com. An audio documentary and accompanying slide show related to the book can be found at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=goCD3qMB6tw.

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