Primary Text: The People in the Trees by Hanya Yanagihara

The People in the Trees by Hanya Yanagihara, 2013

Excerpt from review in The Boston Globe, August 2013:

"In Hanya Yanagihara’s fascinating and multilayered debut novel, “The People in the Trees,” certain natives of Ivu’ ivu, a fictional Micronesian island, live well beyond 100 years. Only those who reach the age of 60 eat the meat of a local turtle, after which their bodies remain vigorous for centuries. The problem is, their minds deteriorate rapidly, so they become, like the turtles, feeble beings encased in hardy shells. The “dreamers,” as these elders are known, are banished to a remote part of the island, shunned by their mortal, but mentally sharp, kinsmen.
[...]
Stories of incursions into remote and primitive places — from “The Tempest” to “King Kong” — read as allegory, and “The People in the Trees” is no exception. Perina’s explorations of Ivu’ ivu can be seen through a psychoanalytic lens: His twisted psyche is revealed along with the secrets of the island he studies. Yanagihara’s painful portrayal of the decimation of an indigenous way of life is also a commentary on colonialism."