An evocative, but strange and disturbing tale of loss and redemption, set in Papua New Guinea. There were some interesting echoes of The Heart of Darkness (a quest into a malaria-ridden, forbidding jungle to find a missing person turns into a disturbing discovery of the evils of human nature), but without the qualities of Conrad's psychological depth and lucid prose. A fascinating setting, but the uneven characters never became sympathetic or even interesting enough for me to redeem themselves in the end. Kira Salek is a fascinating, gutsy journalist and explorer, but from now on I'll stick to her non-fiction books and articles.