Welcome back to Goodreads Monday! It’s been a very hot minute since I did one but I figured I might as well get back into it! This weekly meme was started by @Lauren’s Page Turners and it invites you to pick a book from your TBR and explain why you want to read it. Easy enough, right? Feel free to join in if you want to! I’ll be using a random number generator to pick my books from my insanely long GR Want-to-read list.*

*Sorry if a book has been featured twice. I need to make better note of which ones I’ve done already!

This week’s featured book is The People in the Trees by Hanya Yanagihara. This is a literary historical fiction with elements of magical realism and is Yanagihara’s debut back in 2014.

It is 1950 when Norton Perina, a young doctor, embarks on an expedition to a remote Micronesian island in search of a rumored lost tribe. There he encounters a strange group of forest dwellers who appear to have attained a form of immortality that preserves the body but not the mind. Perina uncovers their secret and returns with it to America, where he soon finds great success. But his discovery has come at a terrible cost, not only for the islanders, but for Perina himself. Disquieting yet thrilling, The People in the Trees is an anthropological adventure story with a profound and tragic vision of what happens when cultures collide.

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Why do I want to read it?

The main reason I added this to my shelf was because after reading A Little Life several years ago, I immediately knew that I had to read all of Yanagihara’s books! Although this one has been sat untouched on my TBR ever since then *cough* I am still looking forward to giving it a try. I’m not very good with magical realism and I’ve seen quite a few mixed reviews about it although the general consensus is that it’s mildly upsetting. Considering Yanagihara wrote A Little Life I’m not surprised (that it’s disturbing) but I know this debut of hers is an entirely different beast compared to her sophomore novel. I feel like this would be a good buddy or group read because I think there’s going to be plenty of fodder for discussions!

Have you read The People in the Trees or is it on your TBR?