Key themes
- Scientific discovery and the ambition that corrupts it
- Power, isolation and what a man without oversight becomes
- Memory as unreliable testimony — the narrator who may be guilty
About this book
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
Published in 2013, The People in the Trees was Yanagihara's debut novel, largely overlooked on publication but reassessed after the success of A Little Life. It draws loosely on the life of Daniel Carleton Gajdusek.
Discussion questions
- The novel is narrated by Norton Perina from prison, where he is awaiting sentencing for child abuse. How does Yanagihara use this unreliable frame — and how much of his account do you trust?
- The discovery in Micronesia involves a group of people with extreme longevity through a specific practice. What is Yanagihara using this premise to say — about scientific ambition, about colonialism, about what we take from cultures we study?
- The novel is loosely based on Nobel laureate Daniel Carleton Gajdusek. What does basing a novel on a real person add or require — and does the novel constitute a judgment on the real person?
- Perina is brilliant, ethically compromised and completely unreflective about his own culpability. How does Yanagihara make him compelling despite this?
- The People in the Trees is Yanagihara's debut, published before A Little Life. How does it relate to that novel — and what is she working through about individual genius and its costs?
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