What book has Callan Wink been reading in Costa Rica?

What Book… 

Author and fly-fishing guide, Callan Wink 

…are you reading now?

I RECENTLY finished Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried. I’ve been in Costa Rica all winter and I only brought a couple books with me.

But I was happy to find a copy of The Things They Carried among the standard offering of paperback beach reads at the only bookstore in my area.

I read it first in college but I forgot how good a novel it is. Also, I’m about halfway through We Hold Our Breath by Micah Fields, a beautifully lyrical portrait of Houston, Texas. 

Part memoir, part reportage, part history. I’m really enjoying it.

… would you take to a desert island?

I’d probably take Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy. Admittedly, on an island it might be nice to have some giant War And Peace-like tome to keep you occupied longer but I’ve reread Blood Meridian probably 15 times by this point, and I still find something unsettling about it every time.

I think time on a desert island would be ideal for pondering the sort of essential good vs evil themes McCarthy explores in the epic struggle between the Kid and the Judge.

After enjoying Charlie And The Chocolate Factory, Callan Wink turned to Hemingway

…first gave you the reading bug?

The first book I remember truly loving was Charlie And The Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl. I read and reread that one frequently when I was a child.

When I got a little older I really enjoyed Hemingway’s Nick Adams stories. 

It was the first time I could remember reading anything set in locations I was somewhat familiar with (such as Northern Michigan) and I still think Hemingway’s writing on fishing is some of the best in the genre.

…left you cold?

In the spirit of not saying anything at all if I don’t have something nice to say, I’ll take this one in a more literal direction. 

One of my favourite books, and one that has never failed to leave me with a deep chill, is Heaven And Hell by Jon Kalman Stefansson.

Set in a rugged Icelandic fishing camp at the turn of the century, its worth reading just for the otherworldly descriptions of the winter ocean and the at times brutal details of the lives of the fishermen.

 At its centre the book is about holding true to a love of literature and ideas in a world that sometimes doesn’t seem to value either.

Beartooth by Callan Wink (Granta, £14.99) is available now from the Mail Bookshop