{"product_id":"eden-undone-a-true-story-of-sex-murder-and-utopia-at-the-dawn-of-world-war-ii","title":"Eden Undone: A True Story of Sex, Murder, and Utopia at the Dawn of World War II","description":"\u003cdiv data-a-expander-name=\"book_description_expander\" data-a-expander-collapsed-height=\"280\" class=\"a-expander-collapsed-height a-row a-expander-container a-spacing-base a-expander-partial-collapse-container\" style=\"max-height: none; height: 280px;\"\u003e \u003cdiv data-expanded=\"false\" class=\"a-expander-content a-expander-partial-collapse-content\" style=\"padding-bottom: 20px;\"\u003e \u003cspan class=\"a-text-bold\"\u003eA power-hungry baroness with two lovers disrupts life on an Eden-like island in the Galápagos, and an isolated community descends into madness and murder—a true story of utopia gone wrong from \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-bold a-text-italic\"\u003eNew York Times \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-bold\"\u003ebestselling author Abbott Kahler.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-bold\"\u003e“Abbott Kahler’s wickedly gothic tale confronts an essential truth about those who ditch civilization: Try as we might, humans cannot elude the tyranny of our own nature.”—Hampton Sides, author of \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-bold a-text-italic\"\u003eThe Wide Wide Sea\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-bold\"\u003e“With taut prose and sublime storytelling, Kahler crafts an atmospheric page-turner, ominous and thought-provoking.”—Kate Moore, author of \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-bold a-text-italic\"\u003eThe Radium Girls\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-bold\"\u003e and \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-bold a-text-italic\"\u003eThe Woman They Could Not Silence\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAt the height of the Great Depression, Los Angeles oil mogul George Allan Hancock and his crew of Smithsonian scientists came upon a gruesome scene: two bodies, mummified by the searing heat, on the shore of a remote Galápagos island. For the past four years Hancock and other American elites had traveled the South Seas to collect specimens for scientific research. On one trip to the Galápagos, Hancock was surprised to discover an equally exotic group of humans: European exiles who had fled political and economic unrest, hoping to create a utopian paradise. One was so devoted to a life of isolation that he’d had his teeth extracted and replaced with a set of steel dentures.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAs Hancock and his fellow American explorers would witness, paradise had turned into chaos. The three sets of exiles—a Berlin doctor and his lover, a traumatized World War I veteran and his young family, and an Austrian baroness with two adoring paramours—were riven by conflict. Petty slights led to angry confrontations. The baroness, wielding a riding crop and pearl-handled revolver, staged physical fights between her two lovers and unabashedly seduced American tourists. The conclusion was deadly: with two exiles missing and two others dead, the survivors hurled accusations of murder.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eUsing never-before-published archives, Abbott Kahler weaves a chilling, stranger-than-fiction tale worthy of Agatha Christie. Set against the backdrop of the Great Depression and the march to World War II, with a mystery as alluring and curious as the Galápagos itself, \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-italic\"\u003eEden Undone\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e explores the universal and timeless desire to seek utopia—and lays bare the human fallibility that, inevitably, renders such a quest doomed.\u003c\/span\u003e \u003c\/div\u003e \u003cdiv class=\"a-expander-header a-expander-partial-collapse-header\" style=\"opacity: 1; display: block;\"\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"a-expander-content-fade\"\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003ca href=\"javascript:void(0)\" role=\"button\" data-action=\"a-expander-toggle\" class=\"a-declarative\" data-a-expander-toggle='{\"allowLinkDefault\":true, \"expand_prompt\":\"Read more\", \"collapse_prompt\":\"Read less\"}'\u003e\u003ci class=\"a-icon a-icon-extender-expand\"\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-expander-prompt\"\u003eRead more\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e \u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Crown Publishing Group (NY)","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50395510472989,"sku":"9780451498663","price":14.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0901\/5692\/5213\/files\/9780451498663.jpg?v=1758821733","url":"https:\/\/bookdelico.com\/products\/eden-undone-a-true-story-of-sex-murder-and-utopia-at-the-dawn-of-world-war-ii","provider":"Book Delico ","version":"1.0","type":"link"}