Euphoria, by Lily King

Nell, an anthropologist, describes the first moment she gets “a handle” on a new place she is studying (no matter how elusory that understanding may turn out to be) thus, “But at that moment the place feels entirely yours.  It’s the briefest, purest euphoria.”  The character of Nell is based on the early life of famed anthropologist Margaret Mead, who’s Coming of age in Samoa was published in 1928 and remains influential and controversial to this day.  The novel is set in New Guinea in the early 1930’s and loosely based on real events and relationships from that period in Mead’s life.  It is an intense and gripping read with an alternative history ending.  It made me want to go back and reread Mead’s Blackberry winter, but not necessarily Coming of age in Samoa.255 pp.