Experiments in utopia punctuate our history as daring idealists attempt to escape the inescapable – human society and what it means to be human. A bizarre and true story of such an experiment is the subject of a new book by bestselling author Abbott Kahler, formerly known as Karen Abbott.
“Eden Undone” follows a group of European social misfits carving out a precarious new life in the Galapagos Islands, just as the rumblings of World War II begin to turn the civilized world upside down. But rather than paradise, utopia brings violence, sex, betrayal and lies. Abbott Kahler recently joined Lois Reitzes on “City Lights” to share more about her stranger-than-fiction tale of utopia at the ends of the earth.
The story centers on Friedrich Ritter, a Nietzsche-obsessed physician, and his partner Dore Strauch, who left their lives in Germany to create a new world rooted in their philosophies.
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