HOTEL KEROBOKAN The Shocking Inside Story of Bali's Most Notorious Jail

Nicholas Bell narrates fellow Aussie Kathryn Bonella’s book on life inside Bali’s notorious prison, the so-called “Hotel Kerobokan,” where inmates run the gamut: international drug traffickers, law-breaking tourists, petty criminals, and Indonesian gang members. Bonella places a strong focus on the Australian and other foreign prisoners in Kerobokan, so Bell’s Australian accent sounds appropriate for the international crowd. According to the inmates interviewed, conditions can be grim, with filth, overcrowding, drugs, and violence prevalent, but more than a few luxuries can be had for a price due to widespread corruption. As a narrator, Bell tends to make the prisoners sound flippant rather than beaten down by the realities of prison life, in part because of the number of descriptions of parties, drug use, and violence included. As a result, the book ends up sounding repetitive and loses some of its impact. S.E.G. © AudioFile 2012, Portland, Maine [Published: JUNE 2012]