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Content snapshot
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Violence
Some
Colonial violence in the setting; some physical confrontation; a death
Language
Barely any
Mild literary language
Sexual Content
A lot
Adult sexual relationships including infidelity; the triangle becomes explicit
Substance Use
Barely any
Period social drinking; ritual use of substances in anthropological context
Emotional Intensity
A lot
Intellectual desire and its physical consequence, a woman's genius threatened by the men closest to her, the ethics of anthropological observation
What this book is about
1930s New Guinea. Based loosely on a chapter in Margaret Mead's life: Nell (Mead), her husband Fen, and Australian anthropologist Bankson form an intellectually electrifying and personally dangerous triangle as they study indigenous tribes along a river. Lily King's novel is about the exhilaration of discovery, the violence that hides inside desire, and a woman whose work will outlast everything the men around her do to contain her.
Notes for sensitive readers
Reader-flagged moments and themes that may affect your experience.
explicit sexual content
infidelity as central plot driver
colonial violence in the anthropological setting
Reader Verification
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