Eden Undone

A True Story of Sex, Murder, and Utopia at the Dawn of World War II

By: Abbott Kahler

Narrated by: Cassandra Campbell

A 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 New York Times bestselling author Abbott Kahler.

“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 The Wide Wide Sea

“With taut prose and sublime storytelling, Kahler crafts an atmospheric page-turner, ominous and thought-provoking.”—Kate Moore, author of The Radium Girls and The Woman They Could Not Silence

At 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.

As 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.

Using 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, Eden Undone explores the universal and timeless desire to seek utopia—and lays bare the human fallibility that, inevitably, renders such a quest doomed.

Abslutely enchanting

I was anchored off Floreana LAST WEEK! There was a shipboard talk about the Galapagos Affair. This book was mentioned and I downloaded it immediately, Post Office Bay which plays a big part in the story was one of our stops. I was told that Frido and Hacienda Paradiso, central locations in this riveting story no longer exist. The mystery of what happened to the Baroness has never been solved. The interactions of the characters in this story is suspenseful with loyalties changing around. If you have not already been to the Galapagos this book will sure make you want to go there.

People bring drama to paradise

Eden Undone

By Abbott Kahler

One segment of this book described a news report about the subject’s of the book. The article talked about how a few wealthy and eccentric people had left the chaotic world of the 1930’s to settle on a remote Pacific island in the Galapagos where they sat in paradise sipping tea and reading while the world fell apart.

The book is proof that people bring drama with them regardless of where they go, as they managed to stir up intrigue, sexcapades and murder.

With that, the narrative still drags somewhat. It probably could have been half as long.

Better than the movie

Really good and detailed, make a person want to visit. Listening to the book made me imagine being there.

Fascinating true story

I love this “page turner”! Abbot Kahler has this brilliant way of telling this non-fiction true story as a captivating story. It kept me engaged and intrigued right to the end and beyond.

Does Eden Truly Exist?

Does eden truly exist? Get a bunch of eccentrics together on an uninhabited island and find out. What could go wrong when people who want to get away from people only to find more people? A lot! Resentments, comparisons, love triangles, and just plain bad behavior… good grief!