An unlikely entourage attempts Galapagoan utopia: Abbott Kahler’s ‘Eden Undone.’

On this episode of Fully Booked, Abbott Kahler joins us to discuss Eden Undone: A True Story of Sex, Murder, and Utopia at the Dawn of World War II (Crown, Sept. 24), a spooky, spirited, seductive page-turner sure to titillate thriller fans and history buffs.

Kahler (formerly Karen Abbott) is the author of four New York Times bestselling works of narrative nonfiction, including the Gypsy Rose Lee biography American Rose and The Ghosts of Eden Park, which shares its subject with the podcast she hosts, Remus: The Mad Bootleg King. Her debut novel, Where You End, a psychological thriller inspired by a true story of twins and amnesia, was the CBS New York Book Club’s Readers’ Choice pick in January 2024. She lives in New York City and Greenport, New York.

Here’s a bit from our rollicking review of Eden Undone: “Kahler…briskly recounts the mysterious history of the small Galapagos island Floreana. Drawing on diaries, letters, and news reports, Kahler follows the fortunes and misfortunes of a handful of eccentric Europeans who settled on the island, beginning in 1929, sharing the fervent desire ‘to create a utopia, although each of them had different visions as to what a utopia might be.’ First to arrive were Dr. Friedrich Ritter, a narcissistic German physician, and his patient Dore Strauch, who left their respective spouses with the plan ‘to live a life of contemplation, of mutual love and simple work with natural things.’ But news reports about their endeavor turned the ‘Modern Adam and Eve’ into the objects of such sensational publicity that others followed. Some—journalists, scientists, and wealthy Americans eager to see exotic wildlife—made brief recurring visits; among those who stayed, intruding on the couple’s life of contemplation, were a German war veteran, his pregnant lover, and his sickly teenage son and the rapacious Baroness Wagner, accompanied by two lovers, who planned to build a luxury hotel. Life on the island was physically challenging for all of them.…But equally challenging was a deepening atmosphere of hostility and distrust…leading, Kahler reveals, very likely to murder.”

Kahler tells us how she came across the irresistible newspaper clippingnthat became the inspiration for Eden Undone while she was researching a different book. We discuss the unusual doctor-patient relationship between Ritter and Strauch, their unorthodox plan for shedding their spouses and relocating to Floreana, and how hard the journey from Germany to the Galapagos was in 1929. We talk a bit about the book’s epigraphs and the philosophies of Thomas More, Thomas Hobbes, and John Locke. Kahler introduces listeners to the settlers who followed Ritter and Strauch to Floreana; and I ask her to consider which of them came the closest to realizing their version of utopia. We talk about the American explorer class circa the 1930s and ’40s, the importance in nonfiction of rich detail and suspense, and much more.

Then editors Mahnaz Dar, John McMurtrie, and Laurie Muchnick share their top picks in books for the week.

EDITORS’ PICKS:

Narwhal: Unicorn of the Arctic by Candace Flemming, illus. by Deena So’Oteh (Anne Schwartz/Random)

Consider the Turkey by Peter Singer (Princeton Univ.)

Model Home by Rivers Solomon (MCD/Farrar, Straus and Giroux)

THANKS TO OUR SPONSORS:

Naked Girl by Janna Brooke Wallack

Journey of Awakening and Higher Consciousness by Jane Kim Yu

Through the Riptide by Phyllis Fahrie and Bert Murray

Fully Booked is produced by Cabel Adkins Audio and Megan Labrise.