In the original dustsheet. Green cloth binding with gilt title on the spine.

• F.B.A. provides an in-depth photographic presentation of this item to stimulate your feeling and touch. More traditional book descriptions are immediately available.

SHORTLISTED FOR THE ORANGE PRIZE FOR FICTION 2012

There were people on the banks of the river.

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’ 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.

What Marina does not yet know is that, in this ancient corner of the jungle, where the muddy waters and susurrating grasses hide countless unknown perils and temptations, she will face challenges beyond her wildest imagination.

Marina is no longer the student, but only time will tell if she has learnt enough.

Reviews:

• Ann Patchett writes with deep thought. She carries not only the story but paints emotional pictures in the narrative that keeps you believing in each character to the end.

• Dr Annick Swenson had been financed by an American pharmaceutical society to go to a remote part of the Amazon to do some research work on the drugs which could replicate the fertility of a local tribe, the Lakashi, whose women folk were able to have children even in their seventies. She was now 73, had been there for five years and had hated being distracted from her work by letters from the company asking about her progress, and had not replied to them. The company had then sent out Dr Anders Elkman to find her and bring her back. But after a time it received a brief letter from Swenson saying that Anders had died of a fever and had been buried locally. Now the company sent out 42 year old Dr Marina Singh, a former pupil of Swenson’s and friend of Anders to establish contact with Swenson and to find out more about Anders’ death. What happens during this mission makes up the bulk of the book, which is intricately plotted, wonderfully written, and in which dramatic incidents follow close on one another. There is first of all the compelling way in which Patchett describes the Amazon jungle and the innumerable dangers from insects, snakes, poisonous frogs etc. Then there is the description of Lakashi tribe, of their so unfamiliar behaviour and customs, and the habit of its women to go to a particular place in the jungle to chew the bark from the trees there, which was the cause of their prolonged fertility and which, incidentally but importantly, prevented them from catching malaria. Dr Swenson is the most impressive and fully realized character in the book. She was a commanding personality whose gestures the Lakashi instantly obeyed. Although she initially resented the appearance of Marina, she was actually not as remote as one might have thought, told Marina at length about her experiences with the tribe, and in due course liked and respected her, and entrusted her with some quite remarkable responsibilities. Nor was she a solitary worker: she was surrounded by a group of other doctors. But it also turns out that, on two important matters, she had deliberately lied, and these result in the dramatic ending of the book. She had also more or less adopted Easter, a young deaf boy from another tribe. He was a very agile and intelligent boy; he skilfully piloted the pontoon boat on which they travelled and memorized all the creeks and inlets of the river system. He also easily formed bonds: with Dr Swenson, with Marina, and he had formed one with Anders while Anders was with the Lakashi. It also turns out that, on two important matters, Dr Swenson had deliberately lied, and these result in the dramatic ending of the book. There are a few drawbacks: the novel ends without telling us what happened to Dr Swenson when Marina eventually returned to America; and I found one or two crucial events hard to explain – notably what had made Marina agree to go to the Amazon in the first place, and why she had agreed to the company’s request that she should stay when she had decided to leave. But these cavils do not stop me from giving this remarkably inventive and unputdownable novel a five star rating.