Whitcoulls Recommends: I Was Anastasia and Eden Undone

I Was Anastasia by Ariel Lawhon. The Romanovs hold an enduring fascination for many of us, and this is the fictional account of Anna Anderson, who for 50 years claimed that she survived the massacre and was in fact Anastasia Romanov. The author cleverly presents the details of what happened, and this woman’s subsequent fight to be recognised as genuine – and then lets you, the reader. decide where you think the truth lies.

Eden Undone by Abbott Kahler. In the 1930’s, a German couple moved to the Galapagos Islands to establish a new Utopia where, over time, they were joined by two more groups. They were all eccentric – an Austrian “baroness” arrived with two lovers in tow - and there were shenanigans. A number of wealthy Americans on scientific expeditions visited and befriended them, along with an increasing number of tourists who came to ogle, and things eventually went from bad to worse with two of the colony missing and three found dead. Paradise was lost.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:06):
You're listening to the Sunday Session podcast with Francesca Rudkin
from News Talks.

Speaker 2 (00:11):
Ab Joan mackenzie joins us Now to talk books. Good morning, Hello,
I am really interested in this book by Ariel Lahon.
I was Anastasia.

Speaker 3 (00:24):
Yes, I'll just split surname for people, because it's quite
a hard one to grasp. It's lawhon Ariel Lahon. Now,
I've loved her for some time, particularly last year when
she wrote a book called The Frozen River, which was
magnificent historical fiction. And this is also historical fiction, but
of a quite different type. Anastasia, of course, was one

(00:45):
of the children of the Romanov family. The family, the
parents and the five kids were all executed during the
Bolshevik Revolution. But there was a woman called Anna Anderson
who spent years and years and years claiming to be
one of those murdered children, and she wanted to claim
her rightful place in the Romanov dynasty and spent trying

(01:06):
to prove that case. She even had marks on her
body which would correspond with the gunfire that the family
received at the time they died, and she says that
she managed to get away and get herself back together essentially,
So it's a really interesting story. And what she does
in this book, she tells it from the perspective of

(01:27):
both Anna and of Anastasia and essentially leaves it up
to the reader to figure out where you think the
truth lies. So if you've got a thing for the Romanovs,
as so many people do have, this would be a
really good one to pick up because it's very interesting
historical fiction around a fascinating premise that Anna Anderson pursued
for quite some time.

Speaker 2 (01:46):
It is one of those enduring mysteries, isn't it, as
to whether a Rominov really did manage to survive that massacre?

Speaker 3 (01:53):
Yes?

Speaker 2 (01:54):
Yeah, interesting. Okay, what else have you got for us?

Speaker 3 (01:57):
I've got a nonfiction book called Eden Undone by Abbot Khla.
This is fascinating. In the nineteen thirties, there were a
couple of Germans who decided that they wanted to establish
a new utopia, and they chose an island in the
Galapagus and off they went. But before they went, the
male of the two had all of his teeth extracted

(02:17):
because he knew there'd be no dental surgery on the island,
which was at that stage uninhabited, practical practical, so he
had a set of stainless steel dentches made and when
they got there, and of course her teeth started to
fall out. They shared the dnches, so it's got all
its kind of extraordinary information in it. And they were
followed there by a couple of other groups. There was
a World War One veteran in his family and he

(02:39):
was traumatized from the war, and they were living a
quite difficult life. And then the third group that came
was a woman claiming to be an Austrian baroness, and
she turned up with her two lovers and she had
a pearl handled pistol and she used to kind of
pistol whip them and make them fight each other and
do really weird things. So things on the island got

(02:59):
quite odd, and there were visitors. There were some wealthy
American businessmen who used to take scientific expeditions around the
area where they had scientists on board, and they'd pick
up samples and take them back for further observation back
in the States. But he one of these guys particularly
befriended the original couple on the island. And then there

(03:21):
were the tourists who came along to gork at them,
and the baroness would seduce the tourists as they arrived.
So it really was quite the situation. It sound like
a find, just extraordinary. And then towards the end, two
of the inhabitants of the island go missing and three
of them are found dead, and there are all sorts
of accusations of murder, flying and foul play. It's a

(03:41):
really interesting piece of I guess history.

Speaker 2 (03:45):
Eden Undone is the name of that book by Abbott Carla. Also,
the first book that Joan spoke about was I was
Anastasia by Ariel Lahone. Thank you so much.

Speaker 1 (03:56):
Thank you for more from the Sunday session with Francesca Rudgin.
Listen live to news Talks they'd be from nine am Sunday,
or follow the podcast on IHEARTA video