Guatemala: High Life, Low Life

Steven Froelich doesn't just stumble into trouble: he hunts it down and makes it his constant companion.Guatemala inaugurates the series of Froelich's travel memoirs, which will include Belize, Nicaragua, Colombia, Mexico and Cuba.

Fresh from a Miami drunk tank, Steven lands in Guatemala City. Riotous road trips follow, with our man perpetually wasted on booze and cocaine but fuelled by a passionate curiosity about people from all walks of life.

His guide? Antonio, a sweet-natured, streetwise hotelconcierge who shepherds him through colonial Antigua, the shores of Lake Atitlán, the beaches of Monterrico and, ultimately, into the interior to visit his home village, where gringos are rare and deeply suspect. Danger is never far off, but neither are laughs.

Then there's Anabella, a wealthy, glamorous and garrulous middle-aged woman with whom Steven strikes up an unlikely friendship, accompanying her back to the capital with her three kids. There he mooches an open-ended stay in her gated community, which bristles with armed guards and famous eccentrics.

With an unapologetically raw, unfiltered and darkly funny voice, Froelich explores the absurdities of the human condition, Guatemala-style - beauty and madness, privilege and privation.