The People in the Trees

The People in the Trees is the 2013 debut novel of author Hanya Yanagihara. Yanagihara stated that her novel was in part inspired by Daniel Carleton Gajdusek, who was revered in the scientific community before being accused of child molestation.The bulk of the novel is made up of the fictional memoirs of Dr. Abraham Norton Perina, a scientific researcher who discovers a turtle with life-prolonging qualities on the fictional island of Ivu'ivu. Yanagihara based the physical look and shape of Ivu'ivu on Angra dos Reis.