The people of the trees
The people of the trees (original title: The People in the Trees ) is a novel by the US writer Hanya Yanagihara from 2013, in which the story of a medical doctor is told who, with two ethnologists, an isolated tribe on (fictional) South Sea islands explored and in the process comes on the trail of a life-extending secret. The medical professional becomes famous, adopts countless neglected children raised in his home in the United States, and faces charges of child molestation. The book was published in German in 2019, translated by Stephan Kleiner.
The story is based on the life of the American virologist and Nobel Prize winner Daniel Carleton Gajdusek and the abuse scandal surrounding him.
action
Shortly after completing his studies , the young medical doctor Norton Perina meets two ethnologists who take him on an expedition to the U'Ivu Islands. There the three immerse themselves in the strange world of a tribe living in isolation there , observations, discoveries and findings of the scientists are described in an ethnological style. They come across dreamers who live apart , realize that they are very old people with intellectual disabilities, and find out that they have eaten the meat of an endemic species of tortoise. On her return to the USA, Perina secretly takes meat samples with her, studies the effects on mice and can demonstrate an incredible life-prolonging effect; at the same time, however, the mental state of the mice deteriorates.
His research made him famous and won the Nobel Prize . Several pharmaceutical companies send their own research teams to the islands, life there changes dramatically in a short time: Western civilization is destroying the original way of life and nature - in the end the mysterious turtles are also exterminated.
The active ingredient for life extension is discovered, but the side effects - mental decline - prevent its use.
Perina continues to travel to the islands, observes the negative developments there and takes neglected children back to the USA, adopts them and raises them in his big house. In addition, he continues to devote himself to his research; but the upbringing of the children challenges him, and in the end an abysmal side of the researcher is revealed.
Structure and style
The 475-page novel is divided into 6 parts, plus a foreword, epilogue, addendum, appendix and a map of the islands and the village.
The plot is told from Perina's point of view, especially at the beginning the style is reminiscent of the reports of ethnologists trying to decipher foreign societies. This narrative is framed by comments by his long-time colleague Ronald Kubodera in the form of a foreword and, in particular, detailed footnotes. The end is anticipated right from the start. The subject is not mentioned in the actual narrative, the corresponding passage on child abuse is added in an addendum.
The author invented islands, language, customs, animals and fruits - everything seems very realistic. Scientific disputes are presented in the footnotes with details such as names of scientists, citations, publications and magazines.
reception
“In The People of Trees, Yanagihara admirably wrote a fictional ... biography that loads her with big questions: Where are the ethical limits of science? What expectations do we have of them and what are we willing to tolerate? "
“Hanya Yanagihara has constructed this exuberant text in an extremely ingenious way. But "The People of the Trees" is of course much more than a brilliantly written, full story. It raises existential questions, for example about the tasks and responsibilities of science, and it forces us to think about the relativity of morality and ethics. "
book
- Hanya Yanagihara: The People in the Trees . Atlantic, New York 2013, ISBN 978-0-385-53677-6 .
- Hanya Yanagihara: The people of the trees . Translated from the English by Stephan Kleiner, Hanser Berlin, Berlin 2019, ISBN 978-3-446-26202-7 .
Individual evidence
- ↑ Karsten Herrmann: The Discovery of Immortality - Hanya Yanagihara's "The People of Trees" is a rousing novel with weaknesses at the end In: Literaturkritik.de , October 13, 2019 - Review
- ↑ Christiane Irrgang: On the relativity of morals and ethics In: NDR.Kultur , October 13, 2019 - review