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State of Wonder Hardcover – Deckle Edge, June 7, 2011
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A New York Times Bestseller; Orange Prize nominee; a Time Magazine’s Best Books of the Year; a Publisher’s Weekly’s Best Top Ten Best Books; and a Wellcome Trust Book Prize nominee.
“Expect miracles when you read Ann Patchett’s fiction.”―New York Times Book Review
Award-winning, New York Times bestselling author Ann Patchett returns with a provocative and assured novel of morality and miracles, science and sacrifice set in the Amazon rainforest.
Marina Singh is a research scientist at Vogel, a pharmaceutical institute in Minnesota, and inconveniently in love with her boss, Mr. Fox. When one of her colleagues is reported to have died while following up on the progress of a field team based in Brazil, Marina is dispatched by Mr. Fox to the Amazon to uncover the truth of his death. And his widow wants his effects. She travels to Manaus, then down into the Amazonian delta, deep into the dense, dark, insect-infested jungle. The research team is looking into the development of a new miracle drug that could revolutionize Western society. A local tribe has the bark of a certain tree, it yields a substance which allows them to conceive late into middle age: many of the women are getting pregnant into their sixties and seventies. The problem is that the team is taking too long: they have been silent for two years, and Marina has been tasked to find out what is holding back their progress. The second problem is more serious: the team is being headed up by the daunting figure of Annick Swenson, an eminent and fiercely uncompromising scientist who was once Marina’s colleague, and towards whom Marina has very complicated feelings. What Marina learns will change her life. In a novel that is packed with amazing twists and surprises, Ann Patchett returns with immense confidence to a broad canvas, teeming with atmosphere and characters and rich with narrative. Remarkable events--fights with anacondas; encounters with cannibals; deaths; re-births--and profound moral decisions come together in a novel that will enthrall her many readers and fans and is guaranteed to be a major bestseller.
Infusing the narrative with the same ingenuity and emotional urgency that pervaded her acclaimed previous novels Bel Canto, Taft, Run, The Magician’s Assistant, and The Patron Saint of Liars, Patchett delivers an enthralling, innovative tale of aspiration, exploration, and attachment in State of Wonder―a gripping adventure story and a profound look at the difficult choices we make in the name of discovery and love.
- Print length368 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherHarper
- Publication dateJune 7, 2011
- Dimensions6 x 1.17 x 9 inches
- ISBN-109780062049803
- ISBN-13978-0062049803
Book recommendations, author interviews, editors' picks, and more. Read it now.
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Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com Review
Amazon Exclusive: Elizabeth Gilbert Interviews Ann Patchett
Elizabeth Gilbert is the author of the #1 New York Times bestseller, Eat, Pray, Love, as well as the short story collection Pilgrims—a finalist for the PEN/Hemingway Award, and winner of the 1999 John C. Zacharis First Book Award from Ploughshares. A Pushcart Prize winner and National Magazine Award-nominated journalist, she works as writer-at-large for GQ.
Elizabeth Gilbert: As your close personal friend, I happen to know that you traveled to the Amazon to conduct research for this novel, and that you sort of hated the Amazon--can you share a little about that?
Ann Patchett: I absolutely loved the Amazon for four days. It was gorgeous and unfamiliar and deeply fascinating. Unfortunately, I stayed there for ten days. There are a lot of insects in the Amazon, a lot of mud, surprisingly few vegetables, too many snakes. You can’t go anywhere by yourself, which makes sense if you don’t know the terrain, but I enjoy going places by myself. I can see how great it would be for a very short visit, and how great it would be if you lived there and had figured out what was and wasn’t going to kill you, but the interim length of time isn’t great.
EG: Didn't I hear that you have a sort of magical story about a friend who is also a writer, who was also once going to write a book about the Amazon? Can you share this miraculous tale? Also, is your writer friend pretty?
AP: This friend of mine, who happens to be you, is gorgeous, and much taller in real life. Yes, you were writing a novel about the Amazon, and then you decided not to write a novel about the Amazon, and then I started writing a novel about the Amazon, and later when we compared notes (your book dismissed, mine halfway finished) they had remarkably similar story lines, to the point of being eerie. I thought this must be because it was an incredibly banal idea and we had both come up with a generic Amazon novel, but then you told me that ideas fly around looking for homes, and when the idea hadn’t worked out with you it came to me. If this is true I think your name should be on the cover. It would increase sales significantly.
EG: Readers of your prior work--particularly the luminous Bel Canto--will be delighted to see that opera makes an appearance in this novel, as well. In fact, one of the most dramatic scenes in the book takes place at the opera. Is that a wink and a nod to loyal readers, or just an expression of your own deep and abiding musical passions?
AP: It’s a wink and a nod to Werner Herzog and his brilliant Amazon film “Fitzcarraldo” which opens at the opera house in Manaus where the aforementioned scene takes place. I had very little experience with opera when I wrote Bel Canto, and since then it’s become a huge part of my life. It was fun to write a scene set at the opera now that I know what I’m talking about.
EG: State of Wonder a rollicking adventure story, full of peril and bravery and death-defying action. I personally know you to be a homebody who likes to bake muffins for neighbors. How the heck did you pull off this wildness so convincingly? Was it as invigorating to write as it is to read?
AP: Ah, the life of the mind. All the adventure I need I can dream up in my kitchen. I love writing outside of my own experience, making imaginary worlds. If I wrote novels based on my own life I would not be making a living at this. I also love to write a strong plot. I want things to happen in my books, I want to be thrilled. I always think about Raymond Chandler. I’m sure I’m getting the phrasing wrong but the general idea is that when things get slow, bring in a man with a gun. If you can’t find a gun, a poison arrow works just as well.
EG: The cover is a work of beauty. Authors are not always so lucky. Tell us how you managed such a miracle?
AP: When I first started writing this book, I came downstairs one night and found my husband listening to “Horowitz at Carnegie Hall”. The album cover has a very lush filigreed border. I had two thoughts: first, I have an amazing husband who thankfully held onto his Horowitz LPs; second, that the album cover had the exact the feeling I wanted for my book--half jungle, half Baroque period. When I was finished writing the novel I sent the album to my editor, who sent it to the art department. They understood exactly what I was talking about.
From Publishers Weekly
From Booklist
Review
“An engaging, consummately told tale.” — New York Times
“Emotionally lucid. . . . Patchett is at her lyrical best when she catalogues the jungle.” — The New Yorker
“This is surely the smartest, most exciting novel of the summer.” — Washington Post
“The Amazon setting is something Patchett does rather marvelously.… The book is serious, but also so pleasurable that you hope it won’t end.” — NPR
“Outlandishly entertaining…[with] a brilliantly constructed plot.” — Elle
“Packs a textbook’s worth of ethical conundrums into a smart and tidily delivered story. . . . Ms. Patchett presents an alluring interplay between civilization and wilderness, between aid and exploitation.” — Wall Street Journal
“The large canvas of sweeping moral issues, both personal and global, comes to life through careful attention to details, however seemingly mundane—from ill-fitting shoes and mosquito bites to a woman tenderly braiding another woman’s hair.” — O, the Oprah Magazine
“A spellbinder from bestselling author Patchett. . . . Thrilling, disturbing and moving in equal measures—even better than Patchett’s breakthrough Bel Canto.” — Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
“A superbly rendered novel. . . . Patchett’s portrayal is as wonderful as it is frightening and foreign. Patchett exhibits an extraordinary ability to bring the horrors and the wonders of the Amazon jungle to life, and her singular characters are wonderfully drawn. . . . Powerful and captivating.” — Library Journal (starred review)
“A thrilling new novel. . . . The world imagined in this novel is unusually vivid. . . . Reading State of Wonder is a sensory experience, and even after it’s over you’ll keep hearing the sounds of insects, and your own head will still be hot.” —
“A thrilling new novel. . . . The world imagined in this novel is unusually vivid. . . . Reading State of Wonder is a sensory experience, and even after it’s over you’ll keep hearing the sounds of insects, and your own head will still be hot.” — MORE Magazine
“Patchett makes the jungle jump off the page…This is Patchett’s best effort since The Patron Saint of Liars and, yes, that includes Bel Canto” — Shelf Awareness
“Extraordinary. . . . Is there nothing the prodigiously talented Ann Patchett can’t do? . . . Patchett’s last knockout pages proceed full-speed ahead, with more twists and turns and trachery than the Amazon River. Nothing is as it seems, and the ending is as shocking as it’s satisfying.” — Boston Globe
From the Back Cover
Ann Patchett has dazzled readers with her award-winning books, including The Magician's Assistant and the New York Times bestselling Bel Canto. Now she raises the bar with State of Wonder, a provocative and ambitious novel set deep in the Amazon jungle.
Dr. Marina Singh, a research scientist with a Minnesota pharmaceutical company, is sent to Brazil to track down her former mentor, Dr. Annick Swenson, who seems to have all but disappeared in the Amazon while working on what is destined to be an extremely valuable new drug, the development of which has already cost the company a fortune. Nothing about Marina's assignment is easy: not only does no one know where Dr. Swenson is, but the last person who was sent to find her, Marina's research partner Anders Eckman, died before he could complete his mission. Plagued by trepidation, Marina embarks on an odyssey into the insect-infested jungle in hopes of finding her former mentor as well as answers to several troubling questions about her friend's death, the state of her company's future, and her own past.
Once found, Dr. Swenson, now in her seventies, is as ruthless and uncompromising as she ever was back in the days of Grand Rounds at Johns Hopkins. With a combination of science and subterfuge, she dominates her research team and the natives she is studying with the force of an imperial ruler. But while she is as threatening as anything the jungle has to offer, the greatest sacrifices to be made are the ones Dr. Swenson asks of herself, and will ultimately ask of Marina, who finds she may still be unable to live up to her teacher's expectations.
In a narrative replete with poison arrows, devouring snakes, and a neighboring tribe of cannibals, State of Wonder is a world unto itself, where unlikely beauty stands beside unimaginable loss. It is a tale that leads the reader into the very heart of darkness, and then shows us what lies on the other side.
About the Author
Ann Patchett is the author of novels, most recently the #1 New York Times bestselling Tom Lake, works of nonfiction, and children's books. She has been the recipient of numerous awards, including the PEN/Faulkner, the Women's Prize for Fiction in the UK, and the Book Sense Book of the Year. Her novel The Dutch House was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. Her work has been translated into more than thirty languages, and Time magazine named her one of the 100 Most Influential People in the World. President Biden awarded her the National Humanities Medal in recognition of her contributions to American culture. She lives in Nashville, Tennessee, where she is the owner of Parnassus Books.
Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
State of Wonder
By Ann PatchettHarperCollins
Copyright © 2011 Ann PatchettAll right reserved.
ISBN: 978-0-06-204980-3
Chapter One
The news of Anders Eckman?s death came by way of Aerogram,
a piece of bright blue airmail paper that served as both the
stationery and, when folded over and sealed along the edges, the en-
velope. Who even knew they still made such things? This single sheet
had traveled from Brazil to Minnesota to mark the passing of a man, a
breath of tissue so insubstantial that only the stamp seemed to anchor
it to this world. Mr. Fox had the letter in his hand when he came to the
lab to tell Marina the news. When she saw him there at the door she
smiled at him and in the light of that smile he faltered.
?What?? she said finally.
He opened his mouth and then closed it. When he tried again all
he could say was, ?It?s snowing.?
?I heard on the radio it was going to.? The window in the lab where
she worked faced out into the hall and so she never saw the weather
until lunchtime. She waited for a minute for Mr. Fox to say what he
had come to say. She didn?t think he had come all the way from his
office in the snow, a good ten buildings away, to give her a weather
report, but he only stood there in the frame of the open door, unable
either to enter the room or step out of it. ?Are you all right??
?Eckman?s dead,? he managed to say before his voice broke, and
then with no more explanation he gave her the letter to show just how
little about this awful fact he knew.
There were more than thirty buildings on the Vogel campus, labs
and office buildings of various sizes and functions. There were
labs with stations for twenty technicians and scientists to work at the
same time. Others had walls and walls of mice or monkeys or dogs. This
particular lab Marina had shared for seven years with Dr. Eckman. It
was small enough that all Mr. Fox had to do was reach a hand towards
her, and when he did she took the letter from him and sat down slowly
in the gray plastic chair beside the separator. At that moment she un-
derstood why people say You might want to sit down. There was inside of
her a very modest physical collapse, not a faint but a sort of folding, as
if she were an extension ruler and her ankles and knees and hips were
all being brought together at closer angles. Anders Eckman, tall in his
white lab coat, his hair a thick graying blond. Anders bringing her a
cup of coffee because he?d picked one up for himself. Anders giving
her the files she?d asked for, half sitting down on the edge of her desk
while he went over her data on proteins. Anders father of three. Anders
not yet fifty. Her eyes went to the dates?March 15th on the letter,
March 18th on the postmark, and today was April 1st. Not only was
he dead, he was two weeks dead. They had accepted the fact that they
wouldn?t hear from him often and now she realized he had been gone
so long that at times he would slip from her mind for most of a day.
The obscurity of the Amazonian tributary where Dr. Swenson did her
research had been repeatedly underscored to the folks back in Minne-
sota (Tomorrow this letter will be handed over to a child floating downriver in a dugout
log, Anders had written her. I cannot call it a canoe. There never were statistics
written to cover the probability of its arrival.), but still, it was in a country, it
was in the world. Surely someone down there had an Internet connec-
tion. Had they never bothered to find it? ?Wouldn?t she call you? There
has to be some sort of global satellite??
?She won?t use the phone, or she says it doesn?t work there.? As
close as they were in this quiet room she could scarcely hear his voice.
?But for this?? She stopped herself. He didn?t know. ?Where is he
now?? Marina asked. She could not bring herself to say his body. Anders
was not a body. Vogel was full of doctors, doctors working, doctors
in their offices drinking coffee. The cabinets and storage rooms and
desk drawers were full of drugs, pills of every conceivable stripe. They
were a pharmaceutical company; what they didn?t have they figured
out how to make. Surely if they knew where he was they could find
something to do for him, and with that thought her desire for the im-
possible eclipsed every piece of science she had ever known. The dead
were dead were dead were dead and still Marina Singh did not have to
shut her eyes to see Anders Eckman eating an egg salad sandwich in
the employee cafeteria as he had done with great enthusiasm every day
she had known him.
?Don?t you read the reports on cholesterol?? she would ask, always
willing to play the straight man.
?I write the reports on cholesterol,? Anders said, running his finger
around the edge of his plate.
Mr. Fox lifted his glasses, pressed his folded handkerchief against
the corners of his eyes. ?Read the letter,? he said.
She did not read it aloud.
Jim Fox,
The rain has been torrential here, not unseasonable yet year after year it
never ceases to surprise me. It does not change our work except to make it more
time-consuming and if we have been slowed we have not been deterred. We
move steadily towards the same excellent results.
But for now this business is not our primary concern. I write with
unfortunate news of Dr. Eckman, who died of a fever two nights ago. Given
our location, this rain, the petty bureaucracies of government (both this one
and your own), and the time sensitive nature of our project, we chose to bury
him here in a manner in keeping with his Christian traditions. I must tell you
it was no small task. As for the purpose of Dr. Eckman?s mission, I assure
you we are making strides. I will keep what little he had here for his wife, to
whom I trust you will extend this news along with my sympathy. Despite any
setbacks, we persevere.
Annick Swenson
Marina started over at the top. When she had read it through
again she still could not imagine what to say. ?Is she calling Anders
a setback??
She held the letter by its slightest edges as if it were a document still
to be submitted into evidence. Clearly the paper had been wet at some
point and then dried again. She could tell by the way it was puckered
in places, it had been carried out in the rain. Dr. Swenson knew all
about the relationship of paper and ink and rain and so she cut in her
letters with a pencil of hard, dark lead, while on the other side of Eden
Prairie, Minnesota, Karen Eckman sat in a two-story brick colonial
thinking her husband was in Brazil and would be coming home as
soon as he could make Dr. Swenson listen to reason.
Marina looked at the clock. They should go soon, before it was
time for Karen to pick the children up from school. Every now and
then, if Anders happened to look at his watch at two-thirty, he would
say to himself in a quiet voice, School?s out. Three little Eckmans, three
boys, who, like their mother, did not know enough to picture their
father dead. For all that loss Dr. Swenson had managed to use just
over half the sheet of paper, and in the half a sheet she used she had
twice thought to mention the weather. The rest of it simply sat there,
a great blue sea of emptiness. How much could have been said in
those remaining inches, how much explained, was beyond scientific
measure.
Mr. Fox closed the door and came to stand beside Marina?s chair.
He put his hand on her shoulder and squeezed, and because the blinds
on the windows that faced the hall were down she dropped her cheek
against the top of his hand and for a while they stayed like this, washed
over in the palest blue fluorescent light. It was a comfort to them both.
Mr. Fox and Marina had never discussed how they would conduct
their relationship at work. They had no relationship at work, or not
one that was different from anyone else?s. Mr. Fox was the CEO of
Vogel. Marina was a doctor who worked in statin development. They
had met, really met, for the first time late the summer before at a com-
pany softball game, doctors vs. administration. Mr. Fox came over to
compliment her pitching, and that compliment led to a discussion of
their mutual fondness for baseball. Mr. Fox was not a doctor. He had
been the first CEO to come from the manufacturing side. When she
spoke of him to other people she spoke of Mr. Fox. When she spoke to
him in front of other people she addressed him as Mr. Fox. The prob-
lem was calling him Jim when they were alone. That, it turned out, was
a much more difficult habit to adopt.
?I shouldn?t have sent him,? Mr. Fox said.
She raised her head then and took his hand in her hands. Mr. Fox
had no reason to wear a lab coat. Today he wore a dark gray suit and
striped navy tie, and while it was a dignified uniform for a man of sixty,
he looked out of place whenever he strayed from the administrative
offices. Today it occurred to Marina that he looked like he was on his
way to a funeral. ?You didn?t make him go.?
?I asked him to go. I suppose he could have turned me down but it
wasn?t very likely.?
?But you never thought something like this would happen. You
didn?t send him someplace dangerous.? Marina wondered if she knew
this to be true. Of course there were poisonous snakes and razor-
toothed fish but she pictured them safely away from the places where
doctors conducted scientific research. Anyway, the letter had said he
died of a fever, not a snake bite. There were plenty of fevers to be had
right here in Minnesota. ?Dr. Swenson?s been down there for five years
now. Nothing?s happened to her.?
?It wouldn?t happen to her,? Mr. Fox said without kindness in his voice.
Anders had wanted to go to the Amazon. That was the truth.
What are the chances a doctor who worked in statin development
would be asked to go to Brazil just as winter was becoming unendur-
able? He was a serious birder. Every summer he put the boys in a canoe
and paddled them through the Boundary Waters with binoculars and
notepads looking for ruddy ducks and pileated woodpeckers. The first
thing he did when he got word about the trip was order field guides to
the rain forest, and when they came he abandoned all pretense of work.
He put the blood samples back in the refrigerator and pored over the
slick, heavy pages of the guides. He showed Marina the birds he hoped
to see, wattled jacanas with toes as long as his hand, guira cuckoos
with downy scrub brushes attached to the tops of their heads. A person
could wash out the inside of a pickle jar with such a bird. He bought a
new camera with a lens that could zoom straight into a nest from fifty
feet away. It was not the kind of luxury Anders would have afforded
himself under normal circumstances.
?But these are not normal circumstances,? he said, and took a pic-
ture of his coworker at her desk.
At the bright burst of the flash, Marina raised her head from a
black-necked red cotinga, a bird the size of a thumb who lived in
a cone-shaped daub of mud attached to the tip of a leaf. ?It?s an
ambitious lot of birds.? She studied every picture carefully, mar-
veling at the splendors of biodiversity. When she saw the hyacinth
macaws she experienced one split second of regret that she wasn?t the
one Mr. Fox had tapped for the job. It was a singularly ridiculous
thought. ?You?ll be too busy with birds to ever find the time to talk
to Dr. Swenson.?
?I imagine I?ll find a lot of birds before I find Dr. Swenson, and
when I do find her I doubt she?ll pack up on the first day and rush
back to Johns Hopkins. These things take finesse. Mr. Fox said that
himself. That leaves me with a lot of daylight hours.?
Finding Dr. Swenson was an issue. There was an address in Manaus
but apparently it was nowhere near the station where she did her field
research; that location, she believed, needed to be protected with the
highest level of secrecy in order to preserve both the unspoiled nature
of her subjects and the value of the drug she was developing. She had
made the case so convincingly that not even Mr. Fox knew where she
was exactly, other than somewhere on a tributary off the Rio Negro.
How far away from Manaus that tributary might begin and in which
direction it ran no one could say. Worse than that was the sense that
finding her was going to be the easy part. Marina looked at Anders
straight on and again he raised his camera. ?Stop that,? she said,
and turned her palm to the lens. ?What if you can?t get her to come
back at all??
?Of course I can,? Anders said. ?She likes me. Why do you think
I?m the one Mr. Fox decided to send??
It was possible that Dr. Swenson had liked him on the one day she
spent at Vogel seven years ago, when she had sat at a conference table
with Anders and four other doctors and five executives who made up
the Probability Assessment Group to discuss the preliminary budget
for the development of a program in Brazil. Marina could have told
him Dr. Swenson had no idea who he was, but why would she have said
that? Surely he knew.
(Continues...)
Excerpted from State of Wonderby Ann Patchett Copyright © 2011 by Ann Patchett. Excerpted by permission of HarperCollins. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.
Product details
- ASIN : 0062049801
- Publisher : Harper; First Edition (June 7, 2011)
- Language : English
- Hardcover : 368 pages
- ISBN-10 : 9780062049803
- ISBN-13 : 978-0062049803
- Item Weight : 1.15 pounds
- Dimensions : 6 x 1.17 x 9 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #649,246 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #6,505 in Contemporary Literature & Fiction
- #9,856 in Family Life Fiction (Books)
- #33,442 in Literary Fiction (Books)
- Customer Reviews:
About the author

Ann Patchett is the author of six novels, including Bel Canto, which won the Orange Prize for Fiction. She writes for the New York Times Magazine, Elle, GQ, the Financial Times, the Paris Review and Vogue. She lives in Nashville, Tennessee.
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Learn more how customers reviews work on AmazonCustomers say
Customers find the story captivating and thought-provoking. They praise the writing quality as gorgeous, skillful, and descriptive. The characters are well-developed and the book provides a rich sense of what it's like to be a scientist in the Amazon deep into the jungle. Many readers consider the book worth reading and a good choice. The vivid imagery and startling descriptions are praised. However, opinions differ on the pacing.
AI-generated from the text of customer reviews
Customers enjoy the engaging story with an intriguing premise. They find the book compelling from the start with its vivid imagery and humane insights. The author creates a mesmerizing world that draws readers in.
"...I, for one, applaud Patchett, the skillful nuance of her art, and this engaging and human story. Her "gift of craft" gives us the gift of this story." Read more
"...unexpected and thought provoking grays that turn an otherwise very good novel with a riveting plot and an array of memorable characters into a great..." Read more
"...You can feel the suspense of mystery, the painful depth of losses, the danger and also the hope of recovery...." Read more
"...book State of Wonder, and I ordered it expecting it to be one of the best books that I've read all year...." Read more
Customers enjoy the writing quality. They find the prose gorgeous and the author skillfully provides the reader with detail for each character. The descriptions of places are vivid and lyrical, with an authorial presence that flows effortlessly. However, some readers feel the plot is naive.
"...I, for one, applaud Patchett, the skillful nuance of her art, and this engaging and human story. Her "gift of craft" gives us the gift of this story." Read more
"...Patchett can write lyrically and powerfully, describing scenes that linger...." Read more
"...Some of Platchett's best writing comes with her descriptions of the jungle with its oppressive heat and fever-laced air, swarms of buzzing and..." Read more
"..." beautifully renders such a unique and different environment in beatiful prose...." Read more
Customers enjoy the character development. They find the characters well-developed and appreciate the empathy the story evokes.
"..." Patchett does this in "State of Wonder" primarily by making her characters very human in a way that allows the reader to "see through" their own..." Read more
"...an otherwise very good novel with a riveting plot and an array of memorable characters into a great novel that earns it 5 out of 5 stars in my book...." Read more
"...State of Wonder brings together a passionate group of characters who are both complex and simple in their drives and motivations...." Read more
"...'s very heavily plot-driven, and as noted above, some of the characters are quite flat...." Read more
Customers find the book thought-provoking and beautifully told. They say it provides a rich sense of what it's like to be an Amazonian. The novel raises important issues science and our world are facing. It is an exciting scientific adventure to travel to the Amazon deep into the jungle. Patchett explores them in depth, dealing with serious life issues in a highly tolerant way. The plot is riveting in how it mixes science with fantasy, creating doubt and questions.
"...That talent is her ability to deal with serious life issues in a highly tolerant way, in a way that invites the reader to see the shades of gray,..." Read more
"...shortcomings, this is a good book that, more than anything, provides a rich sense of what it is like to be a totally foreign environment--and it's..." Read more
"...ethical solutions for her characters in the novel, her novel raises important issues science and our world is confronting today...." Read more
"...with this amazing tribe of people. This novel has been criticized for its lack of realism. I am not a fertility researcher and..." Read more
Customers enjoy the book. They find the characters believable, and the story satisfying, thought-provoking, and well worth the cost. The book is described as brilliant, sad, happy, and heartbreaking.
"...This is the end of IVF. No more expense, no more shots that don't end up working, no more donor eggs and surrogates...." Read more
"...and given the subject matter of the novel, I decided to give it was worth a shot...." Read more
"...worth the time and money spent on it. Also, a plus for this sunshine and rainbows reader--a..." Read more
"It's a lush, gorgeous book that pulls you along with the story while making you feel like you're right there in the Amazon...." Read more
Customers enjoy the vivid imagery and colorful descriptions in the book. They find the characters beautifully presented and immersed in the sights, sounds, and smells of the Amazon jungle. The prose captures the flavor of the setting with lyrical descriptions and an eye-opening view of the Amazonian jungle environs.
"...First, Patchett brings along the rain forest of Brazil in such vivid detail, she'll have you smacking flies away from yourself and checking around..." Read more
"...line captivating and the scene that Patchett sets is a terrifyingly beautiful one...." Read more
"...Her eloquence and vivid imagery are a feast for the reader. While this is in no way an action-adventure story, it is difficult to put the book down...." Read more
"...The reader will experience an eye-opening view of Amazonian jungle environs, complete with savages and exotic creatures but there's so much more...." Read more
Customers have different views on the pacing of the book. Some find it gripping, moving along steadily, and quickly. Others feel the plot is slow in some spots and unbelievable in others. The beginning is slow for some readers, but it picks up rapidly.
"...Her relationship with the deaf native boy she calls Easter is particularly touching...." Read more
"...She establishes a setting so darkly atmospheric, so itchy and gross and flat-out scary, that once the very likeable Mariana Singh steps foot into it..." Read more
"...While I do have some small quibbles, overall, Patchett creates a gripping novel, focusing on contemporary cultural, gender and scientific..." Read more
"...I found the plot slow in many spots, and unbelievable in others...." Read more
Customers have different views on the book's boredom. Some find it engaging and entertaining, with a seamless flow that keeps their attention. Others feel it drags out and becomes too didactic, with tiresome themes after a while.
"...book I read to be wonderful but this book was a poorly researched and boring and bigoted." Read more
"...This is ovum in perpetuity, menstruation everlasting.'" But how this happens is just plain bizarre...." Read more
"...These three boring people have many boring conversations. It's like Night of the Living Dead. Seriously, I was quite puzzled...." Read more
"...The book lingered in my mind for a long time. I thoroughly enjoyed it." Read more
Reviews with images

Don't buy it unless the publisher/printer fixes the page issues
Top reviews from the United States
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- Reviewed in the United States on August 10, 2011An author who has written a novel as luminous as "Bel Canto" creates a problem, both for herself and the reader. The author has created such a difficult high standard, the reader hopes for an equally engaging reading experience in all subsequent books. The stage is set for disappointment. Thus, even a very good book such as "Run" can result in vague reader disappointment.
So, I approached "State of Wonder" girded for a similar reaction, especially in light of mixed reviews both from literary critics and from friends who had read it before I. As I got into the story, it engaged me somewhat, but I was well into the tale before I felt the same amazement and admiration of the author's skill as I had with "Bel Canto." Deep into the story, I began to see again what is for me Ms. Patchett's greatest talent. That talent is her ability to deal with serious life issues in a highly tolerant way, in a way that invites the reader to see the shades of gray, the nuances, in the life issues being presented. Just as in "Bel Canto," Patchett does this in "State of Wonder" primarily by making her characters very human in a way that allows the reader to "see through" their own initial reactions and judgments. For example, one may initially see the Bovenders as entirely frivolous and insubstantial. Yet, as the story unfolds one is lead to understand that at least Barbara has substance and qualities that soften the earlier prejudice. Marina may seem initially as weak-willed, easily manipulated, and afraid. Yet, as the story unfolds, the reader incrementally is led to understand Barbara's strengths and admirable attributes. Such subtle unfolding of character requires a writer of both great writing skill and a highly refined, non-judgmental understanding of human nature and psychology.
To me the best example in the novel is Ms. Patchett's development of Dr. Swenson. In so many ways, Dr. Swenson is unlikeable and easily subject to quick reader condemnation for her apparent coldness, detachment, lack of feeling, and deception. Yet, as the story moves forward, it reveals her at a deeper level -- her motivations, her relationships with Easter and Marina, and her subjective experience with her pregnancy. Through Ms. Patchett's writing skill, the reader can begin to look at Dr. Swenson in a different light. Her self assuredness is punctured, and the reader is able to view her more humanely. One sees that the cold scientist is also subject to human emotions -- such as the non-rational aspects of the human mother's tie with the child, even an adopted one. One sees that Dr. Swenson's "argument" why Easter must stay in the jungle is simply a rational, intellectual assessment overlaying (one is tempted to say "hiding") the more fundamental human motivation of the "mother" to have the child stay, indeed stay with her. One sees beyond the intellectual argument to the underlying human need and love.
Viewed literally, this story is quite unrealistic and perhaps may seem off-putting in the extreme to the literal minded. To criticize the novel on that score, however, misses the mark. One great purpose of fiction is to teach us about life, about what it truly means to "be human." The magic of great fiction is that an imagined story -- even one that tests credulity in some respects -- can accomplish that important and grand purpose better than a more realistic recitation of "the facts" out of which the imagination and skill of the fiction writer has woven the tale.
I, for one, applaud Patchett, the skillful nuance of her art, and this engaging and human story. Her "gift of craft" gives us the gift of this story.
- Reviewed in the United States on October 15, 2011"State of Wonder" opens with "the news of Anders Eckman's death". Eckman, a medical researcher who worked for the Vogel pharmaceutical company in Minnesota, had been sent to Brazil to try and gather information about the progress of the research being done by another Vogel scientist, Dr. Annick Swenson. Swenson had been in the Amazon for many years, investigating a biological substance that appears to enable women to remain fertile for their entire lives. A lone wolf, Swenson refuses to provide much information to the company, not only about her work but even about her address. Indeed, she hires a quirky young couple from Australia, the Bovenders, to run interference between her and the outside world. When word of Eckman's death from a fever reaches Minnesota, it falls to his office mate, Dr. Marina Singh, to travel to Brazil and attempt to find out more about the circumstances surrounding Anders' death, and to bring word back to Anders' wife Karen, who is left with three young children. Marina travels first to Manaus, a large, noisy, dirty city that serves as a gateway to the Amazon, and then down the Rio Negro to Swenson's field station.
Many reviewers have described this as a female "Heart of Darkness," with Swenson cast in the role of Kurtz. Swenson certainly shares some of Kurtz's defining characteristics: she's a nearly maniacally driven genius, she has little need for other people, and of course, she lives amongst indigenous people in a site that can only be reached by riverboat. However, she is also a much less evil person than Kurtz. Her relationship with the deaf native boy she calls Easter is particularly touching. Swenson is by far the best-drawn character in the book; only Marina comes close. Where it is Swenson's relationship with Easter that humanizes her, Marina's most interesting relationship turns out not be with Mr. Fox, the Vogel executive with whom she is having a love affair, but rather with Anders. Sharing a lab with Anders for many years has led to a set of feelings that Marina discovers only slowly, and after he is gone.
Patchett can write lyrically and powerfully, describing scenes that linger. In "State of Wonder", these notably include Marina's Larium-induced nightmares that are pure expressions of separation anxiety stemming from a childhood in which her parents lived in different continents. Also memorable is an account of an encounter with an anaconda that occurs when a young native many and would-be Amazon tour guide decides to drag the snake onto his boat, thinking that this is the sort of stunt that tourists will expect from him.
The book is full of external references, which in the hands of a less talented writer would be jarring, but which Patchett is able to pull off. My favorite, from late in the book, is this: "Of all the tributaries in all of the Amazon, he had wandered onto hers."
"State of Wonder" is not perfect. It's very heavily plot-driven, and as noted above, some of the characters are quite flat. The plot itself has some implausibilities that detract from the story: for example, the fact that despite having lived amongst the Lakashi tribe for years, Swenson and her staff can barely understand any of their language. The scientists' study of the perpetual fertility drug raises potentially extremely interesting and controversial questions about whether there are limits on what should be studied, but the novel gives only a very shallow exploration of these questions. And the ending is unsatisfying: Marina makes a choice that would seem to have much greater consequences than it does. Despite these shortcomings, this is a good book that, more than anything, provides a rich sense of what it is like to be a totally foreign environment--and it's fun to read, to boot.
Top reviews from other countries
- Elaine DaveyReviewed in Canada on March 17, 2023
5.0 out of 5 stars Hard to put down
This book drew me in to the characters and plot and kept me on the edge of my seat until the end. Many twists and turns along the way!
- PaolaReviewed in Italy on August 21, 2023
5.0 out of 5 stars Wow!
I loved every page of it. The story is beautiful and very well written, fully believable, and human, with very interesting ethical themes of pharmaceutical research.
Do not read the synthesis as there is a big spoiler I wish I had not read.
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Elena RigbyReviewed in Germany on November 3, 2020
5.0 out of 5 stars Ich habe viel über das Leben im brasilianischen Urwald gelernt
Ein wundervolles, spannendes Buch mit interessanten Beschreibungen über einen Stamm von Ureinwohnern im brasilianischen Dschungel und einer Forscherin, die seit Jahrzehnten versucht, das Geheimnis dieses Stammes zu ergründen. Ein bisschen Liebe kommt auch drin vor und lehrreich ist es außerdem.
- Amazon CustomerReviewed in India on November 5, 2017
4.0 out of 5 stars State of wonder could have been better
The book is enthralling in its treatment of the story and its comment on the state of the pharma industry in the United States. Where it does falter is in its somewhat stereotypical treatment of what constitutes “ India” and its somewhat surprising lack of understanding of knowledge about the country. Of course the actual content on India is a very tiny part of the story but it does appear that Ms. Patchett has applied a broad brush stroke for the developing world in this regard. Also, the sense of closure that Run and Commonwealth have at the end of the book is missing here. And the loss of Easter is a very sudden event not fitting well in an otherwise wonderfully crafted book
- Antony SimpsonReviewed in the United Kingdom on October 16, 2016
5.0 out of 5 stars Book Review: State of Wonder by Ann Patchett (from AntonySimpson.con)
Review from AntonySimpson.com:
State of Wonder is a masterpiece novel, written by true wordsmith Ann Patchett. Patchett is unbelievably talented and this book left me with a feeling of Wow.
State of Wonder starts with the death of Anders Eckman, a Research Doctor for pharmaceutical company Vogel. He was in the Amazon searching for Dr. Swenson, who had gone AWOL.
Marina Singh, Anders’ colleague, goes on a journey to the Amazon to uncover the mystery surrounding his death. On this journey, Marina will have to confront her past, learn the progress of Dr. Swenson’s research in the present, with the hopes that the life-long fertility drug will save Vogel’s future.
But what she finds is so much more than what she expected. Marina goes on a journey that transforms her from within.
State of Wonder readers will forget to eat, go to bed later than normal and completely lose track of time. Purely because they are driven to read on by all aspects of this brilliant story: the plot, the description and the characters.
The complexity of the plot is utterly captivating, completely compelling and has some great twists. Every aspect of this book’s plot is strong: the beginning, middle and end. Patchett’s superb description in State of Wonder sent my imagination into overdrive and immersed me fully into that beautiful but deadly part of the world.
Patchett’s characters are brilliantly crafted. Patchett explores a range ethical issues through her characters perspectives and gives some interesting points of view. These points of view are consistent with her characters and leave the reader plenty to think over, long after they have finished reading the book. State of Wonder is one of those rare books that leaves the reader feeling somehow changed inside.
State of Wonder is beyond marvellous. It is probably the best work of fiction that I’ve read in years. If I had to rate it out of 5 stars, I’d give it 6 stars.
State of Wonder far exceeded any expectations I had for it. My copy of the book had the old book cover which was both fantastic and appealing. I don’t know what the publishers were thinking with the new book cover (pictured above). It looks cheap and does nothing to attract a potential reader. If you’re thinking about picking up this novel, ignore any feelings about the cover and do. It is an essential read for any lover of fiction.
I cannot heap enough praise on Patchett for this novel. State of Wonder will leave readers in a State of Wonder. See what I did there? Despite this play on words, that is actually how a reader will feel when he or she finishes the book.
State of Wonder is available to buy on Amazon and at all good bookshops.
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