Courtesy of AppleTV+. To say that Paul Theroux, the acclaimed novelist and travel writer, author of 57 books of fiction and non-fiction, is having a moment is an understatement. His 14th novel, The Mosquito Coast, published 40 years ago, has just been adapted into an AppleTV+ series, which premiered on April 30. It stars Justin Theroux, Paul's nephew, and both Justin and Paul are executive producers. The adaptation was written by Neil Cross, the British novelist and scriptwriter who created the multi-award winning BBC crime series, Luther (starring Idris Elba). The book has not been out of print since its publication—an authorial dream. It was also made into a feature film, in 1986, directed by Peter Weir and starring Harrison Ford and Helen Mirren. And it's had another, exceedingly rare accolade: Banned in South Africa during apartheid, it was un-banned by Nelson Mandela after his 1994 ascent to the South African presidency and in 1995 selected by South Africa's department of education as a "set book" for all secondary school students in the country. "My publisher called to say they'd just gotten an order for 250,000 copies," Theroux tells me.