Shabono: A Visit to a Remote and Magical World in the South American Rain Forest Book

This book features the convoluted adventures of a woman who decides to live in a community of Brazilian Indians. To those familiar with the Yanomami (I lived with them for 5 years) this is obvious fakery, although my edition of the book did not claim that the book was "a true story" or "nonfiction". Among other clues: she describes a Yanomami wedding ceremony--when in fact no such ceremony exists among the Yanomami, a fact you might know if you had read one or two of the many ethnographies on this tribe.

Florinda Donner is the pen name of Regina Thal, a Venezuelan of German descent who studied anthropology at UCLA, where she met Carlos Castaneda and became one of his followers. She wrote two other books describing her evolution as a bruja. Although she grew up in Venezuela there is no proof that she spent any time with the Yanomami.

Florinda Donner vanished after Carlos Castaneda died in April 1998. Her body was never found.