For this latest outing the adventurous Englishman, who has previously written about Paraguay (At the Tomb of the Inflatable Pig) and Newfoundland (Theatre of Fish) sets out for the wilds of northeast South America, taking in colonial Georgetown "(...a city of stilts and clapboard, brilliant whites, fretwork, spindles and louvers."), French-inflected Paramaribo in Suriname and, most significantly, out into the unconquered wilderness. Attuned to history and the eccentric characters he meets along the way, Gimlette offers up an enticing portrait of the Guianas-- Guyana, Suriname and French Guiana, an appealing land of "head-crushing jaguars, strangling snakes, rivers of stingrays and electric eels."  (SAM168, $16.95)