Author Talk; Danforth Slater on Black Dog, Blue Sea

Twenty years after leaving home, serial traveller Dan Slater feels the need to reconnect with his loving, yet impassive, father.

To this end, he hatches an ambitious plan to take the old man on a three-month long circumnavigation of the Caribbean Sea. This will be no luxury cruise though; a modest budget demands catching long-distance buses, sleeping in hostels, and eating street food - not exactly your average holiday for a 72 year-old. Fortunately, Peter is game for anything.

While Dan is aware of his Dad's Asperger Syndrome, he doesn’t realise the extent of the clinical depression that accompanies it. This revelation gets things off to a shaky start, but the pair gradually develop a comfortable rapport. While working their way around almost 10,000 km of Caribbean coastline, with a backdrop of beaches, jungles, reggae music, and colourful local characters, Dan unravels his father’s eventful, and often poignant, life story. The journey is just beginning to bear fruit when disaster strikes, forcing Dan to evaluate his own mental and emotional makeup.