Samantha Gillison Selected Works

Loosely based on the mysterious 1961 disappearance of Michael Rockefeller, The King of America traces the short, brilliant life of Stephen Hesse, firstborn son of one of America’s wealthiest, most powerful men. After a lonely and restless childhood in a broken family, Stephen attends Harvard, eventually accompanying his mentor, a charismatic anthropology professor, to the impossibly strange and distant world of New Guinea, where a thriving Neolithic culture still practices its ancient rites. There Stephen hopes to make an archaeological discovery that will secure his professional standing and guarantee him a lasting place in the world’s—and his father’s—esteem. But his hardheaded insistence on securing his treasure before the onset of the monsoon season has tragic consequences.

Despite misgivings about moving to such a remote and primitive place (and bringing their young daughter with them), Peter and June Campbell leave Massachusetts for the lush rain forest of Papua New Guinea where Peter will conduct a year of medical research for his doctoral thesis. Dark undercurrents of their feelings for one another rise inexorably to the surface. And, as the ties that bind the Campbells slowly unravel, they begin to explore the undiscovered in themselves. Spare and evocative, The Undiscovered Country offers an uncompromising vision of the fragility of the family and of the resiliency of the human spirit.