Photos of Kira Salak in Papua New Guinea

KIRA SALAK'S PHOTOS OF PAPUA NEW GUINEA

A Mary House-- Menstruating women are required to stay in this open-air hut during their periods, so they won't "poison" the men of the tribe.

Photos of Kira Salak in Papua New Guinea

Casualty of Jungle Travel-- This is what my legs looked like after hacking myself through the interior of Papua New Guinea's jungle.

Anasi Village-- My character Tobo, in my novel The White Mary, was partly based on the witch doctor from this village.

Krit Village-- The people in this real-life village were the inspiration for the Krit people ("The Ones Followed by Death") in my novel The White Mary; note how the man is completely covered with grili, or ringworm.

Scenes from Blackwater Refugee Camp-- I visited the former headquarters of the OPM guerrilla resistance movement, a group which was fighting the genocidal seizure of western New Guinea (West Papua) by the Indonesian military.

Scenes of Papua New Guinea

Tribal Art of Papua New Guinea

THE WHITE MARY

by Kira Salak

READ AN EXCERPT

BUY THE WHITE MARY

"There aren't many books that we hand to friends, urging,
'You have to read this.' The White Mary is one of them."
Cleveland Plain Dealer

"A gripping debut novel."
Publishers Weekly Pick-of-the-Week Selection

"Riveting."
Seattle Post-Intelligencer

"With The White Mary, journalist Kira Salak makes a stunning
debut as a novelist. This is a story whose beauty and power
sweeps you along, like the jungle rivers that bear her heroine
into the heart of New Guinea in search of a vanished American."

--Philip Caputo

Go to the top of the page