about me

I'm a freelance journalist and author. My new book, WHEN WE SOLD GOD'S EYE: Diamonds, Murder, and a Clash of Worlds in the Amazon, tells the story of the Cinta Larga — an Indigenous group that was completely isolated from the Western world until the 1960s, and ended up running a diamond mine in the rainforest. I've been working on it for the past six years, and it will be out in December 2024 from Grand Central Publishing! For updates, sign up for my mailing list here.

My first book, BRAZILLIONAIRES — a “compelling tale of Brazil’s superrich, which deftly weaves lurid soap opera with high finance and outrageous political skulduggery” (Wall Street Journal) — came out in 2016. It was long-listed for the Financial Times Business Book of the Year award, and was a New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice.

My New York Times Magazine feature about the Amazon's ecological tipping point was selected for the forthcoming Best American Science and Nature Writing by guest editor Bill McKibben. I've also written about Rio de Janeiro's Evangelical drug gangs for Harper's; about the sordid underside of a crazy open-air art museum for Bloomberg Businessweek; and about the Islamic State's assault on an ancient oral tradition for Lapham's Quarterly, among many others. The Pulitzer Center, the Fund for Investigative Journalism, and the Alicia Patterson Foundation have generously supported my reporting.

I've bounced around the world a fair bit, but I now live in San Francisco.