Super Short Summary

The People in the Trees by Hanya Yanagihara is a fictional memoir of Dr. Abraham Norton Perina, a Nobel Prize-winning virologist who uncovers the fictional Selene Syndrome, a disease causing physical immortality but mental decline. Set largely in the fictional Micronesian nation of U’ivu, Norton’s memoir, edited by his colleague Dr. Ronald Kubodera, recounts his exploration, scientific breakthroughs, and ultimate imprisonment for the sexual assault of one of his adopted sons. This novel contains descriptions of sexual assault, child sexual abuse, suicide, cultural exploitation, and colonialism.