State of Wonder
Ann Patchett. Harper, $26.99 (368p) ISBN 978-0-06-204980-3
Patchett (Bel Canto) is a master storyteller who has an entertaining habit of dropping ordinary people into extraordinary and exotic circumstances to see what they're made of. In this expansive page-turner, Marina Singh, a big pharma researcher, is sent by her married boss/lover to the deepest, darkest corner of the Amazon to investigate the death of her colleague, Anders Eckman, who had been dispatched to check on the progress of the incommunicado Dr. Annick Swenson, a rogue scientist on the cusp of developing a fertility drug that could rock the medical profession (and reap enormous profits). After arriving in Manaus, Marina travels into her own heart of darkness, finding Dr. Swenson's camp among the Lakashi, a gentle but enigmatic tribe whose women go on bearing children until the end of their lives. As Marina settles in, she goes native, losing everything she had held on to so dearly in her prescribed Midwestern life, shedding clothing, technology, old loves, and modern medicine in order to find herself. Patchett's fluid prose dissolves in the suspense of this out-there adventure, a juggernaut of a trip to the crossroads of science, ethics, and commerce that readers will hate to see end. (June)
Reviewed on: 04/04/2011
Release date: 06/01/2011
Paperback - 353 pages
Paperback - 320 pages - 978-957-32-7127-7
Paperback - 978-1-4088-1875-6
Compact Disc - 11 pages - 978-0-06-211924-7
Downloadable Audio - 978-0-06-207249-8
Compact Disc - 978-0-06-207247-4
Paperback - 526 pages - 978-0-06-206521-6
Hardcover - 353 pages - 978-1-4088-1859-6
Downloadable Audio - 978-0-06-207250-4
Downloadable Audio - 978-1-4618-3219-5
Paperback - 353 pages - 978-1-4088-2188-6
Paperback - 416 pages - 978-0-06-234954-5
Prebound-Glued - 353 pages - 978-1-61383-468-8
Ebook - 384 pages - 978-0-06-204982-7
