Fiction novel about anthropologist discovering new tribe

I read this book about five years ago, and I think it was published in the 2010s. Here's what I remember:

- main character is anthropologist/scientist who discovers a new tribe of natives in some jungle land
- there's something off about the natives? they're strange, not in a magical way, but something else that I can't remember clearly
- he ends up adopting some of the children and taking them back home with him, but he ends up abusing them and is eventually discredited as a scientist
- it might be told first-person, perhaps through journal entries
- the cover was white with some green plants(?) on it - I don't know if that's helpful
- it was weird, but not sci-fi or fantasy, also not based on a true story as far as I know

Thanks for your help!

The people in the trees by Hanya Yanagihara

That's it, thank you so much!!