The People in the Trees: A Novel

The People in the Trees: A Novel by Hanya Yanagihara

A scientist goes with a group to explore a population in a remote Micronesian island. He keeps an open mind as he observes some peculiar practices. The people claim to have lived to be extremely old. They don't wear clothes and have some peculiar sexual practices. When somebody turns 60 they undergo a strange ceremony that involves killing and eating most of a turtle themselves.

The scientist later observes that people can live to be 100s of years old, yet lose some of their mental capacity. He takes turtle samples back to study. When feeding them to mice, the mice can live over three times their normal lifespan. However, beyond three times their lifespan, they start to act strangely. He publishes the results. This sets off a pharmaceutical stampede for the island. The island is pretty much destroyed and the turtle population eradicated in pursuit of the fountain of youth. The people end up moving to a neighboring island where they adopt more western habits, such as wearing clothes, eating spam and drinking.

The scientist's life took a similar turn. After his study was replicated, he achieved renown in his field. He eventually received a Nobel prize. When returning to the island he felt sympathy for the natives and would adopt or orphans or children that parents no longer wanted. He enjoyed the comfort of the children. He wanted children, but he did not want a spouse. He eventually had a few dozen children. One of the boys continually acted up and caused trouble for him. Eventually, the boy led charges against the scientist, resulting in the scientist being imprisoned. (He feels upset that his brother supported the boy - even as his brother had a boyfriend a fraction of his age.) In a postscript, a very disturbing account of the scientist raping one of his kids is included with implication that this was not a unique occurance.

The book is told as a scientific monograph assembled by a third party. The friend of the scientist provides accounts as well as personal footnotes in the story. On the audiobook different narrators handle the different parts -with one being harder to understanding the other.