Told in the first person by a freelance journalist, this is an investigation into the circumstances that led an American anthropologist to be jailed for murder in Thailand. It is a fascinating, multi-stranded, informative story. The detail of missionary work, primitive tribes, life in Thailand and other eastern areas are presented as non-fiction, complete with footnotes, but it’s a tale of jealousy, grief and murder, completely enthralling.
Mischa is a freelance reporter for an English-language newspaper in Thailand.
One drunken evening he hears a story about the suicide of Martiya van der Leun,
a charismatic American anthropologist who was serving a life sentence for
murder. What begins as mild curiosity in the case rapidly becomes an obsession,
as Mischa seeks to reconstruct the details of Martiya’s life – and death. He
interviews her colleagues, seeks out the family of her victim, and eventually
travels into the Thai hills, into the world of the remote Dyalo tribe whom
Martiya studied and among whom she lived. What he uncovers is a tragic love
story: of a woman who fell in love with the field and then – much later and with
fatal consequences – with one of her subjects.
'This is a great story… You can’t stop reading.' Stephen King
'Gripping and entertaining… Exuberant and inventive… A quirky, often brilliant debut.' Hilary Mantel, New York Review of Books
'Fieldwork is that rare thing – an entertainingly readable novel of ideas… Berlinski’s narrative is brilliantly plotted and builds to a shattering but entirely credible conclusion.' Los Angeles Times
Author
About Mischa Berlinski
Mischa Berlinski was born in New York in 1973. He studied classics at the University of California at Berkeley and at Columbia University. He has worked as a journalist in Thailand
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