I think above all else it is freedom I search for in my work, in these far-flung places, to find a group of people who give each other the room to be in whatever way they need to be. And maybe I will never find it all in one culture but maybe I find parts of it in several cultures, maybe I can piece it together like a mosaic and unveil it to the world.
lily king
This book was such a pleasure to read. Equal parts travel exploration and love story. It’s the kind of book you get lost in, the descriptions of New Guinea, the intrigue of anthropological studies and theory, the intensity of the relationships between the three main characters. It’s also probably the smartest love triangle – although in some ways I hesitate to call it that – that I’ve ever read.
Nell and Fen are a newly married couple who have just come away from an exhausting study of a cruel tribe. They are about to leave the country when they meet thoughtful, empathic Bankson who is desperate for their company and decide to stay and study another group in Bankson’s territory.
Read this when you want to disappear into a book for a while. I didn’t want to put it down.
