Water Lust
A Candid Coming-of-Age Saga
by Gerhard Pohle

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Gerhard Pohle fell in love with the water when he was a child. His parents travelled widely, and he spent his formative years in Indonesia, Madagascar, and India, along with his native Germany. Snorkeling in tropical waters left the little boy with a fascination for marine life—an undertow that would keep pulling him back towards the sea. This water-loving child—who had only occasionally seen the inside of a classroom—would eventually earn a doctorate and become a marine biologist, but it would be far from easy. The journey would take another twenty years and cross five different continents. It would pit him against everything from an education system determined to discard him to a raging civil war. Rejections, heartbreaks, family crises, and his own crumbling self-esteem would test his resilience, but that resilience would never run dry for long. An unvarnished inspirational coming-of-age story about travel and family, about love, friendship, and loneliness, about being dismissed as “not worth teaching,” and about learning anyway—despite everything life throws at you.

www.gpohle.ca

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“…a meticulously crafted and inspiring memoir for weekend warriors and veteran wanderers alike… [that is] a globe-spanning testament to adaptation… the casual wisdom [the author] wrings from his experiences is nothing short of profound…” —Self-Publishing Review (4/5 stars) “…teenage shenanigans interspersed with heartbreaking tragedy, narrow misses and daring escapes [, it is] … a thoughtful, event-filled, wide-ranging … lively and engaging [story] that includes humor, … catastrophe, and triumph.” —IndieReader (4.5/5 stars)

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Gerhard Pohle was born in Bayreuth, Bavaria, to a German father and French-speaking mother. He spent his childhood in Indonesia, Madagascar, and India, returning to Germany intermittently due to his father’s occupation before eventually putting down roots in Canada. A lifelong fascination with water and marine life led him to become a marine biologist, and after a rocky start to his schooling he graduated from the University of Toronto with a PhD. Doctor Pohle spent his professional career at the Huntsman Marine Science Centre in New Brunswick as a researcher, curator, manager and director. A career writing scientific literature pivoted, on retirement, into writing about his formative years. When not preoccupied with his large-scale model railroad or landscaping his property in Atlantic Canada, he indulges his passions for travel and motorcycling. Gerhard, his wife, Irene, and their two Weimaraner dogs live near St. Andrews by-the- Sea, in a home overlooking the St. Croix River at the ocean.

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Contributors

Author

Gerhard Pohle

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