Editorial Content for Eden Undone: A True Story of Sex, Murder, and Utopia at the Dawn of World War II
Contributors
Reviewer (text)
They wanted paradise, but they couldn’t escape the dangerous intricacies of human nature. Dore Strauch Koerwin was a German woman coping with the debilitating nature of multiple sclerosis when she met Dr. Friedrich Ritter. Friedrich believed that diseases such as MS were more a product of the mind than a physical affliction. Dore found herself fascinated by the brilliant but cerebral doctor. She was married to a man who provided her with little affection or joy. Friedrich was involved in a rocky marriage with a singer where passionate feelings generated into incidents of domestic violence. Dore and Friedrich were drawn to each other and soon separated from their respective partners.
"EDEN UNDONE commences with the discovery of two decomposing bodies on Marchena Island in November 1934, which sets a menacing tone of mystery to begin Abbott Kahler’s spellbinding work."
Friedrich enjoyed living a spare and solitary existence despite his previous marriage. His mindset to leave his German homeland behind wasn’t on a whim. He had served on the deadly frontlines of the German Army during the First World War and had emerged damaged from it. In the wake of Germany’s defeat, the country’s economy plummeted, and various factions violently fought for control. The depravity of Weimar Germany and the arrival of the Nazis only furthered the desire for Dore and Friedrich to escape.
The pair arrived at Floreana, an island in the Galápagos, in July 1929. They would begin to build a new home while cultivating the land to sustain themselves. Friedrich was very adept at handiwork, while Dore maintained a garden along with caring for a burro they owned. However, signs of discord were sown early as Friedrich constantly rebuked Dore when she assisted him. The occasional strife notwithstanding, they would successfully build a home and call it Friedo Farm. Despite its location and uninhabited state, Floreana was a frequently visited stop by mariners. The appearance of a wealthy sailor named George Allan Hancock would lead to a friendship with the couple and himself but also would result in publicity about their living arrangements.
Friedrich claimed to be displeased by newspaper headlines about their private Shangri-la, but Dore believed that he secretly enjoyed it. However, they bridled at the newcomers who had moved to the island and become their neighbors. Condescension seemed to guide their distaste for Heinz Wittmer; his wife, Margret; and Heinz’s son, Harry, who relocated to Floreana in 1932. Yet the Wittmers were harmless compared to the baroness, who moved there with two men and would attempt to dominate the island and its residents. The ingredients were present for a tragic ending.
EDEN UNDONE commences with the discovery of two decomposing bodies on Marchena Island in November 1934, which sets a menacing tone of mystery to begin Abbott Kahler’s spellbinding work. The idea of fleeing a deteriorating and confining homeland to seek paradise is alluring to many but is not entirely realistic. In 1929, Dore and Friedrich went all in on their gambit hoping to find nirvana. Within a few years, they were regarded as a contemporary Adam and Eve.
Kahler goes into great depth about the inner workings of Dore and Friedrich’s stormy relationship and how the occurrences at Floreana Island affected them. The dark history of the island’s previous residents provides a foreshadowing of the events that unfolded from March 1934 onward. Kahler’s previous work of nonfiction (written as Karen Abbott) was the New York Times bestseller THE GHOSTS OF EDEN PARK. In EDEN UNDONE, she continues to establish herself as an exceptional scribe of true-crime and history-based books.
Teaser
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.
Promo
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.
About the Book
An incredible true story of murder, romance and a fateful search for utopia in the Galápagos --- from the New York Times bestselling author of THE GHOSTS OF EDEN PARK.
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.
Audiobook available, read by Cassandra Campbell
