The People in the Trees

De: Hanya Yanagihara

Narrado por: Jeff Harding

In 1950, a young doctor call Norton Perina signs on with the anthropologist Paul Tallent for an expedition to the remote Micronesian island of Ivu’ivu in search of a rumoured lost tribe. They succeed in finding not only that tribe but also a group of forest dwellers they dub ‘The Dreamers’, who turn out to be fantastically long-lived but progressively more senile.

Perina suspects the source of their longevity is a hard-to-find turtle; unable to resist the possibility of eternal life, he kills one and smuggles some meat back to the States. He scientifically proves his thesis, earning worldwide fame and the Nobel Prize, but he soon discovers that its miraculous property comes at a terrible price.

As things quickly spiral out of his control, his own demons take hold, with devastating personal consequences.

©2013 Hanya Yanagihara (P)2013 Audible Ltd

An addictive but traumatic listen

Definitely worth a credit but I listened to The Secret Garden next as an antidote.

Terrible but Incredible

This book is not for the faint of heart and I don’t say that lightly. I read horror for fun because I enjoy the gore and being scared. This book is not part of the horror genre but I think it should be because it was absolutely horrifying. But not it the fun way. If you are sensitive and a lover of animals and children maybe give this one a skip.

Incredibly well written, at many points I forgot that it is a work of fiction, and detailed. I’m sad to say how much I enjoyed this book considering it’s subject matter but it’s one hell of a rollercoaster ride that at a point had me thinking hard about things I’d never had to think about before, which is what great books should do. Definitely worth a read if you are into that kind of thing.

no more Hanya books for me

The pedo stuff is just too much for me to forgive the otherwise compelling storyline.