Set up as both a mystery and an adventure novel, State of Wonder is built around a mysterious fertility drug that would allow women to give birth well into old age. Patchett s medical investigators offer us forensic detail about the questions, boundaries, and morality of medical research, third world geography, environment and society, as well as the impact of intervention on both people and nature. Marina Singh is sent into a Brazilian jungle to find Dr. Annick Swenson, a research biologist who has been working for decades on a revolutionary fertility drug. She is also seeking information about her Vogel Pharmaceutical colleague, Anders Eckman who has died in the middle of this mission. Facing down snakes, heat and local tribes with strange customs, Marina also confronts her own ghosts from the past. She is haunted by a missing father, an unbending lover, and a difficult former mentor. To add to her burden, she is challenged by unexplored truths and painful moral choices as she travels into the heart of nowhere. Patchett s story echoes Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad and is a parallel journey into the complex and little known environment of the Amazon and a chilling look at the role of scientific progress in today s world. Bookclub-in-a-Box explores these questions and more in the discussion guide for State of Wonder. Join us in the discussion of how moral and ethical considerations impact scientific research, fertility and birth, malaria, local native tribes and their environment. Along with Ann Patchett, Bookclub-in-a-Box explores these ideas within the relationships of the individual and the larger world community. Every Bookclub-in-a-Box discussion guide includes complete coverage of the themes and symbols, writing style and interesting background information on the novel and the author, as well as a complementary RAG (Read-Along-Guide), a quick reference pamphlet offering interesting facts and questions to consider while reading the novel.