The White Mary - Hardcover

Salak, Kira

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0805088474 ISBN 13: 9780805088472

Publisher: Henry Holt & Co, 2008

Synopsis

white mary, the by salak, kira

About this title

Review

With "The White Mary," journalist Kira Salak makes a stunning debut as a novelist. This is a story whose beauty and power sweeps you along, like the jungle rivers that bear her heroine into the heart of New Guinea in search of a vanished American. In the tradition of Joseph Conrad's "Lord Jim" and Graham Greene's "The Heart of the Matter," "The White Mary" is a superb adventure tale that explores the human soul, a tale of a physical journey that frames a spiritual quest for love and meaning in a world sadly deficient in both.--Philip Caputo

"One cannot write well about people risking their lives without having done it oneself; suffice it to say that Kira Salak is profoundly convincing on the topic. Salak's got "it": That ability to capture the world in all its beauty and darkness and violence without romanticizing it. This is a book borne of the years that Salak spent as a journalist and traveler in some of the most terrifying places in the world, but she has held on to her basic humanity through it all. That essential humanity is what elevates "The White Mary"--and all of Salak's work--from mere 'adventure writing' to true literature. The reader is changed by it--changed in the same way Salak must have been, many times over, in the writing of it. This is a truly inspiring book about the kind of place I have spent many years reporting from. There is no doubt: She nailed it."--Sebastian Junger

"Minutely observed and utterly mesmerizing . . . rendered in Salak's artfully unadorned, fast-paced prose--a style reminiscent of Cormac McCarthy, with an ample supply of his bleakness and violence. There are also shades of "Heart of Darkness" . . . both books are obsessive searches throughinhospitable lands for a lost soul."--Michael Finkel, "National Geographic Adventure"

"There are echoes of "Heart of Darkness" in this riveting novel about a globe-trotting American journalist's attempt to track down a Pulitzer Prize-winning correspondent who is supposed to have committed suicide in New Guinea but is rumored to be alive. . . [Salak's] first-hand knowledge of jungle life there yields many harrowing, unforgettable passages."--John Marshall, "Seattle Post-Intelligencer"

"Harrowing . . . Salak's descriptions of the jungle passage are compelling and dreamlike."--"The Washington Post "
"Keenly observed . . . As Vecera cuts her way through swamps and forests, encountering insects, snakes and the native population along the way, you'll think of the travails of Katharine Hepburn in The African Queen."--"USA Today "

"There aren't many books that we hand to friends, urging, 'You have to read this.' "The White Mary" is one of them."--"The Plain Dealer" (Cleveland)

"Salak's descriptions of the sights, sounds, and smells of the jungle, with its brutal chieftains and servile women, brings the story to life with all of its horrors and satisfactions."--"St. Louis Post-Dispatch"

Harrowing . . . Salak's descriptions of the jungle passage are compelling and dreamlike. "The Washington Post"

Keenly observed . . . As Vecera cuts her way through swamps and forests, encountering insects, snakes and the native population along the way, you'll think of the travails of Katharine Hepburn in The African Queen. "USA Today"

There aren't many books that we hand to friends, urging, 'You have to read this.' "The White Mary" is one of them. "The Plain Dealer (Cleveland)"

Salak's descriptions of the sights, sounds, and smells of the jungle, with its brutal chieftains and servile women, brings the story to life with all of its horrors and satisfactions. "St. Louis Post-Dispatch""

"Harrowing . . . Salak's descriptions of the jungle passage are compelling and dreamlike." --The Washington Post

"Keenly observed . . . As Vecera cuts her way through swamps and forests, encountering insects, snakes and the native population along the way, you'll think of the travails of Katharine Hepburn in The African Queen." --USA Today

"There aren't many books that we hand to friends, urging, 'You have to read this.' The White Mary is one of them." --The Plain Dealer (Cleveland)

"Salak's descriptions of the sights, sounds, and smells of the jungle, with its brutal chieftains and servile women, brings the story to life with all of its horrors and satisfactions." --St. Louis Post-Dispatch

About the Author

Kira Salak has won the PEN award for journalism and appeared five times in Best American Travel Writing. She is a contributing editor for National Geographic Adventure magazine and was the first woman to traverse Papua New Guinea; her nonfiction account of that trip, Four Corners, was a New York Times Notable Book of 2001. Her fiction has appeared in Best New American Voices and other publications.

About this edition

• Publisher: Henry Holt & Co
• Publication date: 2008
• ISBN 10: 0805088474
• ISBN 13: 9780805088472
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 351