I fear this is one of those books that I'll forget the details about in a few months, despite it being so rich and lovely. I'll remember the writing--Patchett has a wonderful style--but despite having finished it last night, I'm already forgetting the details. It usually doesn't happen so quickly. 
 The pharmaceutical company Marina works for is funding research in the Amazon, though there's been little to no communication as to its updates. Her lab partner (for lack of a better word) is sent there to find out information, but he doesn't return--he dies of a fever, but his death only brings more questions. 
 Marina goes to Brazil herself, and it's not until that moment that the story truly begins. The descriptions of the sweltering heat and the streets of Manaus are wonderful, in addition to the details of Marina not knowing the language and having lost her luggage several times. It's truly being dumped in the middle of nowhere and expecting to survive. 
 The style is beautiful, and the descriptions are memorable, but the plot itself is... lacking. It gets especially weird when Marina finally makes it to the jungle, where the natives have apparently accepted these foreign doctors and researches into their culture. That's the least of it. There's a major plot twist that you kind of see coming, and a reunion that is supposed to be emotional that just doesn't make sense. 
 (view spoiler)[I mean, I knew from the beginning that her co-worker wasn't dead, so his presence only confirmed what I'd known all along. And why did they have to have sex? Marina is there because his wife couldn't go herself. Apparently what happens in the Amazon stay in the Amazon. They don't talk about it, and there's no repercussion. Is this supposed to be the grand conclusion to this story? (hide spoiler)] 
 Maybe I shouldn't be surprised that I'm less than satisfied with the conclusion, because it isn't my first novel of Patchett's that I've felt this way. We're given a grand story with beautiful imagery, and then it fizzles out with a half-hearted ending.