Due to a sudden, unexpected passing in the family a few years ago and another more recently and my subsequent (mental) health issues stemming from that, I was unable to download this book in time to review it before it was archived as I did not visit this site for several years after the bereavements. This meant I didn't read or venture onto netgalley for years as not only did it remind me of that person as they shared my passion for reading, but I also struggled to maintain interest in anything due to overwhelming depression. I was therefore unable to download this title in time and so I couldn't give a review as it wasn't successfully acquired before it was archived. The second issue that has happened with some of my other books is that I had them downloaded to one particular device and said device is now defunct, so I have no access to those books anymore, sadly.

This means I can't leave an accurate reflection of my feelings towards the book as I am unable to read it now and so I am leaving a message of explanation instead. I am now back to reading and reviewing full time as once considerable time had passed I have found that books have been helping me significantly in terms of my mindset and mental health - this was after having no interest in anything for quite a number of years after the passings. Anything requested and approved will be read and a review written and posted to Amazon (where I am a Hall of Famer & Top Reviewer), Goodreads (where I have several thousand friends and the same amount who follow my reviews) and Waterstones (or Barnes & Noble if the publisher is American based). Thank you for the opportunity and apologies for the inconvenience.

I chose to read this book based on the cover alone so I had no idea what I was getting into. While this isn't my typical go to read the story was beautifully written. I learned about a culture I knew practically nothing about. This book documents the authors experiences in Papua New Guinea while he was in the Peace Corps.

I loved this book! I remember watching a documentary about the tribe people of papa New Guinea and found it engrossing.
This book is beautifully written and touches on so much more than the witchcraft and murder of a woman. It touches on life, death, morals, religion, self awareness, the extent we go to find ourselves and a place in this world.
Just a beautiful book that will stay with me for life.

Christopher Davenport comes from Green Bay in the Mid-West USA, to visit the Eastern Highlands in Papua New Guinea as part of a Peace Corps Volunteers group in 1994.
His purpose is to become a teacher there, but first he has to spend approximately two months home-staying in the tiny village of Mari-eka in the Goroka district.
Only one foreigner is placed in each village.
After a very warm welcome he given a new name, and is introduced to Papa, Mama, baby Gilbert, Uncle Francis and the old man Aha-No.
The family take him in as their own son.
Christopher’s descriptions of place and people are both evocative and entrancing for the reader. He never loses sight of the strange and the beautiful.
Barry from New Jersey is his teacher and mentor at the ‘Kefamo’ peace corps educational centre, and has been there some years.
Barry is a fount of cultural wisdom and enlightenment in all important things anthropological, a compass to Christopher and the reader.
He mentions that:
“The Europeans believed the centre of New Guinea to be entirely uninhabitable, and for centuries the Highlands were represented on maps with expansive blank spaces simply marked unexplored”
Meanwhile:
“the Highlanders had been convinced there was no world beyond what was right in front of them”
And “there was no one else but them.”
Barry speaks of adopted religions recently brought in by missionaries and soul savers, and the underlying entwined threads of sorcery, magic, and continuous connections to the spirit world that are woven deep into the heritage and psyches of the indigenous peoples.
He points out to his students that it’s mostly fruitless to try to intellectualise or try to change many thousands of years of their culture and perceptions of the world.
I am a big fan of Barry!
So, this is where Christopher’s story gets ‘storied’ as they say around the village camp fire.
In a brave and courageous account, with some of the best description I’ve read recently.
This tale written years later after struggling:
“to make sense, and comprehend their compulsion to this act”
His story is unique, flowing, written with deep thought, self-reflection and compassion for humanity.
I loved the questions raised within the book regarding the role of western philanthropy, and the jagged merging of cultures.
The depth of Christopher’s writing made me feel I was also living the Mari-eka village experience through his eyes.
A captivating read for everyone interested in far flung corners of our world, other worlds within our own, and things we can only begin to understand.

Thank you to #NetGalley and #LumeBooks.co.UK for an ARC copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

In 1994 Peace Corps volunteer Christopher Davenport embarked on an adventure to the Eastern Highlands of Papua New Guinea where he lived in a village of farmers who welcomed him and with whom he built good relationships, feeling himself accepted into the community. At first everything goes well but then one day he discovers that the community has killed a local woman accusing her of sorcery. He finds this event very difficult to deal with, going against everything he holds right and reasonable in his western viewpoint. This well-written and thoughtful book explores his attempt to reconcile his feelings towards the people he has come to love and respect and this, to him, barbarous act. It’s an intelligent and insightful examination of cultural difference and the very concept of such “philanthropic” missions to native societies which are based on the idea that western civilisation is somehow “better” and more valuable than that of so-called “primitive” societies. This memoir of his time in the village is vivid and atmospheric, and he never over-dramatizes the effect the killing had on him. I’m sure there must be many others who have gone on such missions who will have found it hard to reconcile the different beliefs, values and assumptions of such alien cultures with their own. The book is also a vivid portrait of life in Papua New Guinea, a place I knew little about.

On one hand this is a fascinating look at a culture that is probably not familiar with most of the Western world. Christopher Davenport was embedded with a Papua New Guinean family and learns their language, culture, and gets to know them as a family. This part of the book is brilliant.

However, the handling of the death of the woman - the central part of the book, really - isn't great. He never finds out her name (doesn't even ask), and basically her death only functions as a growth point for the author. This was a real woman, who was tortured and murdered, and the empathy seems really lacking there? The woman is basically a plot device - her death is a catalyst for a lot of introspection and moral questioning - but we miss out on *who she was*, or any real investigation of the experience of the women of the village. Even Mama seems like a background character. I get that the author was kind of excluded from the women's side of life, but he lived in a hut with a woman! There is a couple of throwaway lines that there is still a culture of domestic violence in the Highlands, but it's presented as an 'oh well, such is savage culture!', rather than an investigation of why it happens, if there are any education efforts against it. The author seems to believe that it's a rather inevitable part of most cultures - almost as if it's 'natural' until cultures become more civilised.

In the end, I loved learning about the culture, but a felt let down by the treatment of the women.

A fascinating, thoughtful book written by a Peace Corps volunteer who lived with an indigenous family in Papua New Guinea. He becomes part of a family, even calling the couple he lives with "Papa" and "Mama." He attends weddings, story-telling sessions, and de-briefing/training sessions with other Peace Corps volunteers living in the area. The perspectives of people who have only recently entered the modern world are amazing. They still believe in witchcraft and act on these beliefs. How do you deal with such a culture with respect and dignity? The author struggles with this question and takes most of his challenges in stride. I really enjoyed this book.