except an author's note at the end says it's inspired by actual events. Keep telling yourself, 'It's only a novel, it's only a novel'. Even the sunniest skies of this ill-starred shoot are thick with menace and portent. You shouldn't anyway, because Wilson's writing style is hypnotic, tightly wound, and harrowingly evocative of the story's stifling, bug-heavy atmosphere. 'Joining the ranks of recent hotly anticipated crime novels such as The Girls, Kea Wilson's We Eat Our Own steps back to the 1970s with a blood-curdling horror story about making a movie in the Amazon.' - Playboy, Inspired by actual events, Wilson shows impressive command of a narrative that weaves back and forth and back again in both time and locale much like the viewer of a pseudo-documentary horror movie (ever seen The Blair Witch Project?), you wonder throughout whether you should trust whatever it is you're told-and jumping to the end won't help at all. Inspired by a true story from the annals of 1970s Italian horror film, and told in dazzlingly precise prose, We Eat Our Own is a resounding literary debut, a thrilling journey behind the scenes of a shocking film and a thoughtful commentary on violence and its repercussions. The actor thought this would be a role that would change his life. Entrepreneurial Americans, international drug traffickers, and M-19 guerillas are all fighting for South America's future-and the groups aren't as distinct as you might think. But what the actor doesn't realize is that the greatest threat might be the town itself, and the mysterious shadow economy that powers this remote jungle outpost. The air is so wet that the celluloid film disintegrates. The production team seems headed for a breakdown.

He's replacing another actor who quit after seeing the script-a script the director now claims doesn't exist. When a nameless, struggling actor in 1970s New York gets the call that an enigmatic director wants him for an art film set in the Amazon, he doesn't hesitate: he flies to South America, no questions asked. An ambitious debut novel by an original young writer, We Eat Our Own blurs the lines between life and art with the story of a film director's unthinkable experiment in the Amazon.

We Eat Our Own by Kea Wilson