First published 2007
Mischa Berlinski follows his girlfriend to northern Thailand, where she teaches school and he writes occasional pieces for an English newspaper. A tip from another expatriate changes everything. An American anthropologist named Martiya van der Leun has killed herself in prison, where she was serving fifty years for murder. Berlinski starts digging into her story out of curiosity, but his interest becomes an obsession. The victim was a young missionary from a family that came to Thailand from Oklahoma in the 1920s to spread Christianity. Berlinski traces three generations of this missionary family while uncovering Martiya's academic work among the Thai hill tribes. Two worldviews collide in these remote communities: the scientific approach of modern anthropology and the religious mission to convert indigenous peoples. As Berlinski investigates deeper, he discovers how these competing American ideologies led to violence in a place far from home.
Genres: historical-fiction, contemporary, anthropology, academic
Vibes: intimate, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: fish-out-of-water, obsession
Setting: Thailand, Oklahoma
Period: 20th-century
12 pages · Audio CD · Tantor Media Inc