State of Wonder (2011) by Ann Patchett, set in the Amazon, is an interesting book.

Dr. Marina Singh is a 42-year-old research pharmacologist working for Vogel, a large pharmaceutical corporation based in Minnesota.

Her stable, quiet life is upended when she learns that her lab partner and close friend, Anders Eckman, has died of a mysterious fever deep in the Amazon rainforest. Anders had been sent there to investigate the progress of a highly secretive, multi-million-dollar research project funded by Vogel.

The Mission

At the center of this project is Dr. Annick Swenson, a brilliant, uncompromising 73-year-old gynecologist and Marina’s former medical school mentor. Dr. Swenson has cut off all communication with the outside world while living among the remote Lakashi tribe.

The tribe’s women possess a miraculous trait: they remain fertile and can bear children well into their seventies. Vogel wants to harness this trait to create a revolutionary, multi-billion-dollar fertility drug.

Driven by grief and pressured by her boss (with whom she is having a secret affair), Marina is sent to Brazil.

The Journey

When Marina arrives in the sweltering, chaotic port city of Manaus, she finds herself deliberately stonewalled by Dr. Swenson’s eccentric gatekeepers. To get answers, Marina must leave civilization behind and journey into the heart of the Amazon jungle.

Once she reaches the remote Lakashi village, Marina is forced to confront the harsh realities of the rainforest—poisonous insects, treacherous rivers, and overwhelming isolation. More importantly, she must face Dr. Swenson herself, a formidable woman who rules her research camp like a private fiefdom. As Marina embeds herself with the tribe, she uncovers shocking ethical dilemmas, medical secrets, and unexpected truths about her own past that force her to question the true cost of human progress.

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