Loved this story from start to finish. The author had performed some writing magic to turn Nell, Fen, and Bankson into real humans. As I read the book, I could almost picture myself in the room with them.
Three anthropologists in the 1930s are thrown together while studying tribes in Papua, New Guinea. I am not crazy about how the anthropologists invaded these tribes to learn about them as if these human beings were some exotic sea creatures. But the story stayed true to what happened in real life, so I am not holding that against this novel.
The setting is painted almost like a background score in a movie.
The character dynamic is also unraveled slowly, like this sentence by Nell
“He had broken her glasses by then, so she didn’t know if he was joking.”
I loved learning parts of the story through Nell’s notes. Each character leaped through the pages and caught hold of my attention. When I reached halfway through the book, I had to continue reading till I got to the end.
I cannot wait to read other books by this author.
Anna Bushi 