Marika Vecera, a seasoned war reporter at thirty-two, is on assignment in the Congo when she's captured by rebel soldiers and nearly killed. Making it home to Boston, she finds herself drawn into a relationship with Seb, a psychologist who offers her glimpses of a kinder world. But when she learns about the suicide of her hero, Robert Lewis, the famous Pulitzer-winning journalist, she doesn't know if she'll ever recover from the loss. She begins writing his biography, only to receive a shocking letter from a missionary who claims to have seen Lewis alive in a remote jungle in Papua New Guinea. She can only wonder, What if Lewis isn't really dead?
Marika is determined to find out if the letter is true. Leaving Seb, she embarks on a grueling journey through one of the most dangerous places on earth. She is guided by Tobo, a witch doctor who shows her a magical world of tribal custom and taboo, where people live in fear of spirits coming for them in the night.

A powerful and riveting tale, The White Mary carries the listeners not only into the heart of a strange new world but into the depths of the human spirit.

Kira Salak has won the PEN award for journalism and appeared five times in Best American Travel Writing. She is a contributing editor for National Geographic Adventure magazine and was the first woman to traverse Papua New Guinea; her nonfiction account of that trip, Four Corners, was a New York Times Notable Travel Book of 2001. Her fiction has appeared in Best New American Voices and other publications. The White Mary is her first novel. She lives in Montana.