Paradise with Serpents: Travels in the Lost World of ParaguayBy Robert CarverHarperCollins £8.99FT bookshop price: £7.19

Paraguay is, according to Robert Carver's travel narrative, a black hole of information. Nobody visits this South American country - poor, corrupt and a place where guns are common as handkerchiefs - unless they have a very good reason. And many never make it out again.

Carver retraces a journey made by his great uncle Charlie, who went to Paraguay as a boy and returned decades later, tattooed, scarred and unable to recall anything about his time there.

Carver proves both funny and talented as he deftly links political history with local colour. And, while retaining a strong narrative voice, he never steals the limelight from the real hero of the book: Paraguay itself.