State of Wonder
Among the tangled waterways and giant anacondas of the Brazilian Rio Negro, an enigmatic scientist is developing a drug that could alter the lives of women for ever. Dr Annick Swenson's work is shrouded in mystery; she refuses to report on her progress, especially to her investors, whose patience is fast running out. Anders Eckman, a mild-mannered lab researcher, is sent to investigate. A curt letter reporting his untimely death is all that returns. Now Marina Singh, Anders's colleague and once a student of the mighty Dr Swenson, is their last hope. Compelled by the pleas of Anders's wife, who refuses to accept that her husband is not coming home, Marina leaves the snowy plains of Minnesota and retraces her friend's steps into the heart of the South American darkness, determined to track down Dr. Swenson and uncover the secrets being jealously guarded among the remotest tribes of the rainforest.
3.7 out of 5 based on 12 reviews
|
Omniscore:
|
| Classification |
Fiction |
| Genre |
General Fiction |
| Format |
Hardback |
| Pages |
368 |
| RRP |
£12.99 |
| Date of Publication |
June 2011 |
| ISBN |
978-1408818596 |
| Publisher |
Bloomsbury |
| |
Among the tangled waterways and giant anacondas of the Brazilian Rio Negro, an enigmatic scientist is developing a drug that could alter the lives of women for ever. Dr Annick Swenson's work is shrouded in mystery; she refuses to report on her progress, especially to her investors, whose patience is fast running out. Anders Eckman, a mild-mannered lab researcher, is sent to investigate. A curt letter reporting his untimely death is all that returns. Now Marina Singh, Anders's colleague and once a student of the mighty Dr Swenson, is their last hope. Compelled by the pleas of Anders's wife, who refuses to accept that her husband is not coming home, Marina leaves the snowy plains of Minnesota and retraces her friend's steps into the heart of the South American darkness, determined to track down Dr. Swenson and uncover the secrets being jealously guarded among the remotest tribes of the rainforest.
Read an extract | New York Times
Reviews
The Sunday Times
Sarah Vine
“Patchett’s mastery of language is matched only by her narrative abilities. She allows the story to unfold in many subtle and organic ways. There is nothing obvious or staged about her storytelling; there is not a single lazy stereotype anywhere.
”
18/06/2011
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The Independent on Sunday
Lesley McDowell
“Patchett's sympathetic instinct, the magical trick she performs which ensures that every novel she writes is a work to be embraced, is always to pull the reader in, not to alienate her ... [The fate of the characters] lingers long in the mind after this story is over, and suggest that Patchett, too, understands our deepest, darkest, unvoiceable fears.”
05/06/2011
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The Literary Review
Suzi Feay
“Marina’s redemption is cleverly and surprisingly dealt with, although the reader is left with a sense that no ending can be an entirely happy one. Ann Patchett’s masterful novel grips like an anaconda, and the ‘state of wonder’ it engenders will endure in the mind.”
01/06/2011
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The Los Angeles Times
Carolyn Kellogg
“The setup is like a feminized Heart of Darkness ... But Patchett replaces the savagery in Joseph Conrad's tale with fecundity: In her story, the deepest region of the jungle is a place of fertility and rebirth.”
05/06/2011
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The Daily Telegraph
Helen Brown
“I was baffled when Ann Patchett won the 2002 Orange Prize with Bel Canto … But Patchett’s latest novel really is something special and worth considering for all the literary prizes, festivals and reading groups going this year.”
03/06/2011
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The Sunday Times
Lucy Atkins
“At times, this plot stretches credibility to breaking point. But even so it is hard to lose faith. Patchett excavates her characters’ motivations and urges, she allows their relationships to blossom and transmute; she is dry, controlled and astute. Whatever is going on plot-wise, the human interactions feel real.”
05/06/2011
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The Washington Post
Ron Charles
“As gripping as it is thoughtful, it burns with the low-level fever of Heart of Darkness, but its most febrile moments soar into the creepiness of The Island of Doctor Moreau ... Loaded as the story is with profound ethical issues, Patchett also knows when to pack light to keep the adventure moving. In fact, as the end approaches, “State of Wonder” crashes toward a breathless conclusion as though she’s being chased by a swarm of Amazonian wasps. This is surely the smartest, most exciting novel of the summer.”
08/06/2011
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The Guardian
Stephen J Burn
“The inhibited central character and the relative descriptive restraint free Patchett to concentrate on larger metaphysical questions ... It lacks the developed emotional core of Patchett's earlier books, but it is her most mature work to date, a novel that tries to be more alive to the nerve ends of philosophical life than to the simpler machinery of character motivation.
”
24/06/2011
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The Evening Standard
Deborah Collcutt
“There are some unintentionally comedic episodes in the Amazon that sometimes make one wonder whether Patchett was suffering malaria medication-induced hallucinations, like Marina. Her use of protracted dream sequences also sometimes feels cheap. However, Patchett constantly challenges with her complex plot, pitch-perfect dialogue and character interaction ...”
30/06/2011
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The Financial Times
Susan Elderkin
“One of Patchett’s great skills is in capturing the moment-by-moment psychology of her characters … Although this kind of stylistic precision was successful in Patchett’s Bel Canto, here, combined with the scientific subject matter, it is a bit much.”
03/06/2011
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The Daily Telegraph
Melissa Katsoulis
“It should not matter that doctors Singh and Swenson are women but, in a literary world where explorers, pioneers and medics are almost all male, it does. How refreshing to find these two strong, determined, unwashed females punting down a South American river engaged in debates about science and ethics rather than lipstick and martinis ... an absorbing novel, intelligent yet magical, that will keep you wondering until the very last page.”
08/06/2011
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The New York Times
Janet Maslin
“Perhaps the temptations of the Amazon are overwhelming for any writer with such a gift for animating her surroundings. Perhaps the shadow of Heart of Darkness is too long and the allusions to other works too thick on the ground. And Lost Horizon for American ovaries? Perhaps Ms. Patchett intends that as the jumping-off point for a moral argument. But it’s a little too loony to be taken seriously.”
02/06/2011
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