The People in the Trees - Tapa dura

Power and its abuses are at the heart of Yanagihara's beautifully written debut... Striking and highly satisfying. Yanagihara's ambitious debut is one to be lauded. * Guardian * Feels like a National Geographic story by way of Conrad's Heart of Darkness... The world Yanagihara conjures up, full of dark pockets of mystery, is magical. * The Times *

In 1950 a young medical school graduate, Dr. Norton A. Perina, joins an anthropological expedition to the remote Micronesian island of Ivu'ivu, the home, according both to local rumour and a 4,000 year old creation myth, of a lost tribe. Completely untouched by modern man, the 'forbidden island,' as neighbouring islanders call it, is teeming with unknown, beautiful, and fearsome life - and a secret that will change the world: the key to eternal life. Norton returns from the expedition claiming the discovery that will bring him international fame and a Nobel prize. He will also, in time, adopt forty-three children from the island he has inadvertently destroyed, and through these children bring on his own destruction. The People in the Trees is the story of Norton Perina's life - from a childhood of loneliness and loss, to his world-stirring discovery and subsequent downfall - written in prison, edited and annotated by his friend and besotted colleague, Dr. Ronald Kubodera.