Friday, August 22, 2008

Rediscovering Gems: Easter Island

Easter Island by Jennifer Vanderbes is a novel that contains two parallel stories: one set in the period before and eventually including World War I and a contemporary story.

Elsa Pendleton travels with her husband, who is sent by the Royal Geographical Society, To Easter Island where she finds her passion collecting ethnographic information. Greer Farraday is a botanist who specializes in paleobotany and who goes to Easter Island to try to find out why the forests collapsed on the island.

The novel is filled with rich information about ethnography, epigraphy and paleobotany. Vanderbes shows the dogged, grueling work of a scholar that may be enlivened by discovery. However, this is conveyed through engrossing stories of the women and the island during their respective stays.

Who would enjoy this: This would be an excellent choice for book clubs and for readers who are interested in exotic places, anthropology and even readers of Jared Diamond.

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