Two literary choices set in warm places

Brazil and Egypt.  I enjoy learning about other places through novels, and in winter it's those warm settings that appeal!  State of Wonder by Ann Patchett is the story of Marina, a scientist searching for her missing lab partner Anders in Brazil.   First Marina has to find intelligent, single minded Dr. Swenson who lives deep in the Amazon pursuing her research.   The first half of the novel is slow as Marina's locked up character is revealed.  The reader experiences the same waiting frustration as Marina as she navigates Dr. Swenson's blockades.  Then it's up the river into a female version of Heart of Darkness.  The plot speeds up as the story explores the clash of western and native culture, whether the end justifies the means, and the pull of motherhood.  The novel ends suddenly, with many plot threads still to be worked through.  If you like deep exploration of character like in Patchett's Bel Canto, you will enjoy this book.

Anatomy of a Disappearance opens in Alexandria, Egypt.  Author Hisham Matar gives us Nuri, a young boy mourning the death of his mother.  He falls in love with a beautiful woman named Mona, whom his political dissident father weds.  It is an uneasy trio of characters full of hidden motivations.  When his father is kidnapped and disappears, Nuri struggles to understand.  He slowly unravels the truth, and learns to live with the huge absence of his father.  This is also a novel of characters facing terrible challenges.