The Encounter: Amazon Beaming - Softcover

Popescu, Petru

Softcover

ISBN 10: 178227233X ISBN 13: 9781782272335

Publisher: Pushkin Press, 2016

Synopsis

THE ENCOUNTER tells the true story of National Geographic photographer Loren McIntyre who became lost in a remote area of Brazil in 1969, leading to a startling encounter that changed his life. 

The Broadway stage adaptation of THE ENCOUNTER will run from September 20, 2016 through January 8, 2017 at The Golden Theatre: http://theencounterbroadway.com/

"A mindblower" - Deadline Hollywood; "Transfixing" - Time Out New York; "Haunting and enthralling"- The Wall Street Journal; "An astonishing work of theater" - The New York Times.

1969: Loren McIntyre makes contact with the elusive Mayoruna 'cat people' of the Amazon's Javari Valley. He follows them - into the wild depths of the rainforest. When he realizes he is lost, it is already too late.

Stranded and helpless, McIntyre must adjust to an alien way of life. Gradually, he finds his perception of the world beginning to change, and a strange relationship starts to develop with the Mayoruna chief - is McIntyre really able to communicate with the headman in a way that goes beyond words, beyond language? Petru Popescu's gripping account of McIntyre's adventures with the Mayoruna tribe, and his quest to find the source of the Amazon, is reissued here to coincide with Complicite's acclaimed new stage production inspired by McIntyre's incredible story.

About this title

About the Author

Born in Bucharest in 1944, Petru Popescu was Communist Romania's most provocative young novelist, before he was forced to defect and start writing in English. His Romanian novels Captured and Burial of the Vine are classics of the resistance against totalitarian art. Moving to the United States, he wrote movies including The Last Wave and Death of an Angel, before returning full time to authoring books. The Encounter: Amazon Beaming, Almost Adam, The Return, and The Oasis made him known worldwide. In The Encounter, he renders the discoverer of the Amazon's source, Loren McIntyre, as an unforgettable protagonist for his unique experiences in the rain forest among indigenous people, and for his inward explorations, pursuing the potential to win one's spiritual freedom. Freedom is clearly Popescu's signature motif. He is married to screenplay writer Iris Friedman, and they live in Los Angeles.

Born in London in 1957, Simon McBurney is an actor, director and writer, as well as the founder and artistic director of the acclaimed UK theatre company Complicite, whose productions include The Master and Margarita and A Disappearing Number.

From Kirkus Reviews

The strange and wonderful tale of National Geographic photographer Loren McIntyre's mystical journal from the depths of the Amazon basin to the river's ultimate source in the Andes, solemnly related by Popescu (The Last Wave; In Hot Blood, 1988 paperback.) With 40 years of Amazon exploration under his belt, as well as subsidiary careers in the US Navy and as a documentary filmmaker, McIntyre jumped at the chance to experience and photograph a ``first contact'' with an elusive Mayoruna tribe rumored to exist on the shores of the Rio Javari, an Amazon tributary. Airdropped onto the river's shore, McIntyre easily joined up with the seminomadic ``cat people''--who tattooed their faces and stuck spines in their cheeks to resemble their claimed jaguar ancestors- -but soon became hopelessly lost following their flight from an unseen enemy. Worried that his hired pilot would never find him, unable to speak the Indians' language, and suffering severe culture shock from jungle life, McIntyre nevertheless became fascinated by the Mayoruna headman, who seemed to communicate with the American through what McIntyre called ``beaming''--or mental telepathy. McIntyre apparently received mental messages regarding the tribe's plan to escape modern encroachers by traveling ``back to the beginning''--fasting, dancing, and ingesting natural hallucinogens to return to the safety of the beginning of time. After witnessing this ceremony, McIntyre returned to civilization, but he would experience a psychic reunion with the tribe--and, perhaps, their ancient ancestors--two years later while combing the Andes for the true source of the Amazon. Three stories--McIntyre's contact with the Mayoruna, his discovery of the Amazon's source, and his own inner, spiritual exploration--make for an occasionally unwieldy bundle of a book, but Popescu's awe, combined with McIntyre's general stupefaction, makes for fascinating reading. A sort of Castaneda exercise in mystical and ecological inquiry, perfectly timed for the New Age. (Sixteen pages of color photographs--not seen.) -- Copyright ©1991, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Edition details

• Publisher: Pushkin Press
• Publication date: 2016
• ISBN 10: 178227233X
• ISBN 13: 9781782272335
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 448