HYs writing is mesmerising. i dont know how else to describe it. her words are intelligently intricate, while understatedly beautiful. its the same writing that i fell in love with in ‘a little life.’ while not as soul destroying as ALL, this is still an emotionally compelling novel.

Loved this book different to anything I’ve read before

It’s quite a disturbing subject but cleverly written

Highly recommended

A scientist embarks on a journey to a remote desert island and uncovers a lost tribe that doesn't appear to age.

This is well told and the story is certainly intriguing, but I did feel in some places that it lagged. There's good research in this, and lots to think about once you put it down. This has the feel of something very original As with Yanagihara's previous work, this isn't the easiest of reads and her unpleasant protagonist is a departure from the norm. I'm unsure on how I feel about it- but I think that was part of the point.

This is not an easy book to read. It challenges you, it is hard work and difficult but I would say it is worth it. Although a little bit more fantastical than A Little Life I would still recommend The People in the Trees for Yanagihara fans!

I received an ARC of this novel in exchange for an honest review. Thank you to NetGalley, Pan Macmillan, and the author Hanya Yanagihara.
I loved the author's second novel, 'A Little Life', so was intrigued to read her first. After finishing this book, I am once again struck by the beauty and lyricism of the author's writing style, and her incredible skill with language and the shaping of a narrative.
However, there were sections of this book that were incredibly slow, even torturous at times. The good news is that it redeemed itself pretty swiftly beyond the halfway mark, and I am glad I persevered.
Despite this, I will undoubtedly read whatever else Yangihara publishes. Her writing is dark and disturbing, but always remarkable, leaving you with a profound impression, and you won't put down either novel feeling like you have wasted your time.
I wouldn't go out of my way to recommend 'The People In The Trees' in the same way as I did for 'A Little Life', but would be happy to endorse it to the right reader. 4 stars.

I had previously been obsessed by this author's later book A Little Life. this book had a common subject - one of (sexual) abuse and power.

This was more of a picaresque novel with two narrators, both of them unreliable, who tell the tale of Norton, who travels as a scientist to a remote Pacific island. There he discovers that some of the indigenous people have unusually long life spans. This leads to Norton discovering the "Selene syndrome".

This is a book rich in themes. Like Frankenstein it questions the role of the scientist and the ethics/ morality of scientific discovery.
By Norton travelling to this remote location, the ideas of what constitutes cultural norms and differences is explored. The unreliable narrator uses this idea of cultural differences to "justify" some abhorrent behaviour but the theme is still an important one. Norton seems to think his American culture is superior in many ways , but is it? Ecological values and living alongside nature is a branch of this.
Another theme is one of time, ageing and the ideas of immortality . This of course is a theme which occurs in many different myths and folk tales from around the world but here is given a more contemporary context.

Norton as a character is unsympathetic. He is misogynistic ( his attitude to his female anthropologist colleague is quite shocking) He is egotistical and thinks he can show love. However, even the fraternal bond with his brother is shot through with Norton’s egotism. He derides his brother’s academic and poetic achievements. He seems to disregard the humanity of the "Dreamers". The reader is left wondering what has happened to them towards the end of the book. You also question what he was really like as a father to his numerous adopted children.

The second narrator, Ronald wants to protect Norton's reputation and even admits to excising bits of text. What is the truth?

Other reviews have compared it to Conrad's Heart of Darkness but I think there are also similarities with The Tempest and Prospero's treatment of Caliban. also with the "noble savage" theme.

My one criticism of the book is that the middle section was maybe too long and lost some of my attention. however the shocking ending made up for this.

In summary, a multi layered book with universal themes.

This was... unexpected.

I thought it would be similar to State of Wonder by Ann Patchett, and in a way it was, but instead of just an adventure into an undiscovered world, it’s a journey into how truly callous and evil some people are. Amazingly well written and compelling but also deeply disturbing. I haven’t read A Little Life but from what I know this difficult subject matter is a common theme in Yanagihara’s work, and I look forward to reading more by her.

(Thanks to the publishers for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review)

It took me longer than usual to get through this book - I read the first 25% and loved it, then I lost interest a bit, only to be pulled back in around the 60% mark. One thing is true: this book was extremely well written and original. The main character is fascinating (likeable at times, despicable at others) and his story, though improbable and pushed into the realm of the fantastic, was all-absorbing. I liked how it was written - as letters, with footnotes added by their recipient and editor/transcriber. At times, the story delved into an uncomfortable terrain which I didn’t particularly enjoy reading but, on the whole, I understand this was necessary for the narrative and unfolding of this story. I didn’t enjoy this as much as A Little Life but, nevertheless, this was a well-written novel with an original and at times thought-provoking plot.

Dr. Abraham Norton Perina, a brilliant scientist, won a Nobel Prize in 1974 for discovering the Selene syndrome, a condition that retards aging - almost 25 years later, the Micronesian island where he found the key to what seemed to be eternal life has been utterly exploited by Western pharmaceutical companies, the indigenous civilization has been destroyed, and Norton himself was sentenced to prison for sexually abusing his adopted children.

Yanagihara gives us the complete outline of her story right at the beginning, and then takes her readers on an unsettling, dark and fascinating journey through Norton's life and, most importanly, his mind: From his childhood to university to his work in a lab for animal testing and from there on into the Micronesian jungle and finally to the house in which he lived with more than 40 adopted indigenous children. The story is told mainly from Norton's perspective, and he is unapologetic about all the havoc he has caused: From his point of view, he did what every scientist would have done, he would do it again without hesitation, and before he met the children, they were less than dogs in their third world poverty, he rationalizes.

This author is just brilliant when it comes to psychological writing, and this tale is so gripping and thought-provoking that I could hardly put it down. Norton has some doubts regarding the consequences of his actions, but as he severely lacks empathy with other people and living creatures in general, his self-image is distorted: He is not interested in feelings or morals, he wants to know, explore, dominate. And then there's the question whether intellectual brilliance excuses anything - this book seems to become more timely by the minute. This is a harsh critique of Western exploitation, the way the West (including the scientific community) looks at other cultures and the way science and capitalism go hand in hand.

This would have gotten 5 stars from me if it weren't for the last chapter, the "missing chapter" from the book Norton wrote- this last piece answers all questions in a very direct way, although at that point, every attentive reader already grasped what must have happened due to the many clues throughout the book. This was Yanagihara's debut, so maybe she didn't trust herself enough - she could have though, because this is a fantastic book.

A lot of people start their reviews of this book by talking about the author’s second novel, which nearly everyone (including me) read first. I am slightly unnerved by the number of people who say how much they enjoyed A Little Life. It was compelling and powerful, but it was not, for my money, enjoyable. That doesn’t mean it was in any way bad - it is a remarkable book and well worth reading as long as you are mentally strong enough and in the right place to cope with its dark subject matter.

This debut novel from Yanagihara also deals with some delicate and disturbing topics although it is nothing like as harrowing as her second novel. It is very loosely based on the true story of Daniel Carleton Gajdusek who was both a Nobel prizewinner and a convicted child molester. Yanagihara’s novel is framed as the memoirs of Dr Norton Perina, a Nobel prize winner and convicted child molester (this is not a spoiler as it is explained in newspaper articles included on the first pages of the book) as edited and annotated by Ronald Kubodera, a long time colleague and friend of Perina’s.

It is important to note that it is actually almost impossible to post spoilers for this book because Yanagihara uses Kubodera’s annotations to Perina’s text to post a multitude of spoilers as the book progresses. Very little of what happens takes the reader by surprise as most of it has been at least hinted at, sometimes more, in the footnotes added by Kubodera. Yanagihara is not concerned so much with springing surprises on the reader, but more with making the reader think about the topics she is discussing: western imperialism, power and its abuse and even, through the structure of the book, questions of ownership of a story and of editing.

The main part of the story covers the time Perina spends on a fictional Micronesian island Ivu’ivu, one of three islands in fictional Micronesian country of U’ivu. He discovers a tribe that seems to have discovered the secret of eternal life, although it comes with a heavy price. His work on this makes him famous and wins him the Nobel prize. But, like the secret of the tribe’s long life, Perina’s fame and fortune take a heavy toll. The book explores the implications of Perina's discoveries for both the island and Perina (it is not a happy story for either of them!).

There are two things that are particularly admirable about this book. Firstly, the creation of Perina himself who has a consistent and believable voice all the way through and becomes a very real person in the reader’s mind. Secondly, the detail that supports the creation of U’ivu alongside things like the bibliographical footnotes referencing supporting scientific papers, make the whole novel feel very factual. There are prolonged periods in the book where these two things combine and where you forget that you are reading a work of fiction.

Overall, this is a powerful and cleverly constructed novel and well worth reading. My thanks to the Picador for a review copy provided via NetGalley.

I received a complimentary copy of this book from Pan Macmillan through NetGalley. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

One word review: Remarkable

Rambling review: Since reading (and adoring) A Little Life, Yanagihara's second novel which took the world by storm last year, I wanted to read her debut, The People In The Trees.

This is a dazzling and extraordinary debut. I am actually very surprised that this book didn't take off in the same way A Little Life did, as I think it's technically better (and admittedly a slightly less harrowing read).

Yanagihara plays to human curiosity perfectly, both dicing with the truth of her characters personal lives, morals and choices and taking the reader on an exploration of the jungle. Norton himself is a fascinating character and I found myself making certain assumptions, both on his guilt and character, but having them overturned multiple times over as the novel progressed. 

The two voices which guide you through the story, Norton's narrative and Ronald's footnotes, are perfectly juxtaposed in tone, which adds a humorous edge.

Whilst I was completely enraptured, her writing is so intense and rich that I found myself reading it quite slowly - this wasn't a surprise, as A Little Life took me over a week to read on a holiday (for comparison, I normally finished a book every two or three days, alongside my job).

P.S. That Postscript. It killed me.

Star rating: 5!

Year published: 2013

Publishing house: Pan Macmillan

Amazon Summary: In 1950, a young doctor called Norton Perina signs on with the anthropologist Paul Tallent for an expedition to the remote Micronesian island of Ivu'ivu in search of a rumored lost tribe. They succeed, 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.

If you like your reading to be morally-challenging then this would be a good choice. Yanagihara, before her later [book:A Little Life|22822858] is already concerned with questions of abuse and power, though here her protagonist is the one wielding the power which gets conflated with, and paralleled to, western imperialism and the depredations of capitalism, and with cultural taxonomies of civilisation vs savagery.

We know from the start that a Nobel-winning scientist has been imprisoned for the sexual abuse of boys in his care: boys whom he brought back from Micronesia where he made his big research breakthrough. The main body of the book is the testament of that scientist (inspired by a real person) which is footnoted and, we learn, edited by an acolyte. It’s a smart way to tell a story while destabilising it from the beginning and raising issues of perspective and relativism.

For all the clever stuff, there are long periods of boredom as our narrator rambles – we’re about 50% through the book before some key plot-points are reached and I found myself wanting to hurry it all up. While there are important issues at stake here, the book feels a bit fragmented to me and things don’t quite tie up in the way that I’d have liked: what’s the connection, for example, between the ‘manhood’ rituals of the island people and Perina’s accusations of sexual abuse?

It’s worth noting, too, that Yanagihara cleverly uses a similar cultural protocol to that which existed in 5th century classical Athens when elite adolescents were acculturated via pederastic relations with older male citizens... and yet ancient Greece is still largely regarded as a ‘cradle’ of western civilisation – provocative, eh?

So this is a bold book in lots of ways, provocative and thoughtful – it just doesn’t come together in the way that I’d have liked. Still, it looks forward to the far more cohesive A Little Life.

In Agatha Christie’s The Murder of Roger Ackroyd, the writer famously uses the device of an unreliable narrator. In Hanya Yanigahara's remarkable debut novel The People In The Trees, she revels in using a deeply unlikable narrator. Norton Perina is an unknowing psychopath, with little or no awareness of the consequences of his actions.
It is this narration that elevates this story above more conventionally told tales. I don't know what anthropological explorations Yanigahara drew from, but her Micronesian island U'uivu is a fully realised world. The details of U'uivu’s flora and fauna are exceptional.
Norton as we meet him first is a cruel boy. He goes to medical school where his arrogance and indifference to others makes him unpopular. At the end of his studies he is recommended to assist an anthropologist called Paul Tallent, on a mission to find a new people in the jungle island of U'uivu. Although Norton jumps at the chance, the assignment is meant as a humiliation . The world wants him to go away.
The discoveries Norton makes on the island are to both make and ruin him. They also have a much worse consequence, that the island will never be the same again. Any kind of participant observation has risks. Norton's desire for knowledge enables him to see some things clearly, and his observation of the island rituals is fascinating. He takes home what he believes to be the truths of U'uivu.
It is down to Paul Tallent to see the future cost of their interference. What happens to U'uivu is a familiar story. Anywhere that is colonised is irrevocably changed, and that which was unique is lost.