HarperCollins
ISBN: 978-0062049803
Published June 7, 2011
Hardcover, 368 pages
I was truly enthralled by this book! Bel Canto was good, but for me, this one was even better. I was
transported to the Amazon jungle in a fascinating story about
science, ethics, and facing one's past mistakes. I had no clue how it
was going to end and a part of me did not want it to end.
Dr Marina Singh, a research scientist
with a pharmaceutical company, is sent to the Amazonian jungle to
find Dr. Annick Swenson in hopes of learning about the death of her
research partner Anders Eckman, and how the new fertility drug
research was proceeding among the Lakashi tribe. As Marina embarks on
this adventure, we learn about her past fears and how it has affected
her own relationships. Her trip to Brazil and the jungle with its
dangers and wonders was so amazing to read that I could not get
enough.
Truly, Patchett is a master storyteller
with her captivating prose, vivid imagination, and intriguing plot
revolving on a fertility drug research and the mysterious death of a
co-worker. She creates characters that become unique because of the
circumstances they are inadvertently thrown in. I liked Marina,
Milton and Easter, the deaf boy she becomes attached to. To say more
about the story would give away the plot, but suffice it to say it is
different from anything I have read.
I was unaware how easily my emotions
were invested in the characters and the outcome of the story until I
came to the ending. It was abrupt and left me with so many questions
about the characters and their fate! Because of this, I felt that perhaps the author should not have invested so much time on some secondary characters so as to fully exploit the main ones. The ethical side of the drug research could have been further explored as well. I was frustrated that there was no epilogue just to tie in what happens to them,
especially with Marina. Does she take up Dr. Swenson's advice? Does
she disclose to Mr. Fox, her employer and lover, what really is going
on in the jungle? Does she go back to her regular job after all that
has taken place? And what about Dr. Swenson and Easter?
Despite all this, I still loved this
book. It took me to another place. It made me question what I would
have done in similar situations. Reading it during the hot July days
was perfect because I felt the intensity of the insect-infested humid
jungle atmosphere even more. If you're looking for a different read
this summer, don't hesitate to pick this one up. It's an intelligent
and thrilling book.
Note: This book had two f-words during an intense scene and some sexual references, not explicit.
For more reviews, follow the book tour here.
I will count this book toward the following challenges: Reading the World Challenge
Ann Patchett was born in Los Angeles in 1963 and raised in Nashville. She attended Sarah Lawrence College and the University of Iowa Writers’ Workshop. In 1990, she won a residential fellowship to the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, Massachusetts, where she wrote her first novel, The Patron Saint of Liars. It was named a New York Times Notable Book for 1992. In 1993, she received a Bunting Fellowship from the Mary Ingrahm Bunting Institute at Radcliffe College. Patchett’s second novel, Taft, was awarded the Janet Heidinger Kafka Prize for the best work of fiction in 1994. Her third novel, The Magician’s Assistant,was short-listed for England’s Orange Prize and earned her a Guggenheim Fellowship.
Her next novel, Bel Canto, won both the PEN/Faulkner Award and the Orange Prize in 2002, and was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award. It was named the Book Sense Book of the Year. It sold more than a million copies in the United States and has been translated into thirty languages. In 2004, Patchett published Truth & Beauty, a memoir of her friendship with the writer Lucy Grealy. It was named one of the Best Books of the Year by the Chicago Tribune, the San Francisco Chronicle, andEntertainment Weekly. Truth & Beauty was also a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize and won the Chicago Tribune‘s Heartland Prize, the Harold D. Vursell Memorial Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and the Alex Award from the American Library Association.
Visit Ann Patchett at her website.
