APPENDIX
TIMELINE
1924: Norton Perina born in Lindon, Indiana
1933: Mother dies
December 1945: Sybil dies
1946: Father dies
May 1946: Graduates from Hamilton College
June 1950: Graduates from Harvard Medical School
June 21, 1950: Lands in Ivu’ivu (end of lili’uaka)
Late November 1950: Returns home from Ivu’ivu; begins work in a lab at Stanford University
Spring 1951: Begins first experiments with opa’ivu’eke. Group A consists of 50 mice of 15 months of age; 50 percent are given the opa’ivu’eke; the other 50 percent are the control group. Group B consists of 100 newborn mice (50 percent control, 50 percent given the opa’ivu’eke).
April 1951: Publishes paper on the opa’ivu’eke in the Annals of Herpetology
July 1951: Begins third experiment. Group C consists of 200 mice of 15 months of age; 50 percent are given the opa’ivu’eke; the other 50 percent are the control group.
December 1953: Publishes paper in the Annals of Nutritional Epidemiology (the so-called “Eternity Claim” paper)
March 1954: Adolphus Sereny begins his experiment replicating Group C of Perina’s experiments
April 1956: Sereny readies his paper for publication
September 1956: Sereny’s paper is published in the Lancet
February 1957: Returns to Ivu’ivu
May 1957: Discloses to Sereny the mice’s deterioration
January 1958: Returns to Ivu’ivu. Publishes paper discussing subsequent mental deterioration from consumption of opa’ivu’eke in the Annals of Nutritional Epidemiology.
February 1958: Returns to Stanford; ceases contact with Paul Tallent
1960: Runs own lab at National Institutes of Health
End of 1961: Returns to Ivu’ivu; Tallent disappears
1968: Adopts first child, Muiva Perina
1970: Ronald Kubodera begins work in Perina’s lab at NIH
1974: Wins Nobel Prize in Medicine
August 13, 1980: Adopts Victor Owen Perina
March 1995: Arrested
December 1997: Sentenced to 24 months in prison
February 1998: Begins serving sentence at the Frederick Correctional Facility
GLOSSARY OF SELECTED U’IVUAN WORDS
Note: Vowels in U’ivuan are pronounced as they would be in Japanese or Spanish.
E: Yes, or general greeting (hello, good morning, etc.)
Ea: Look (used as a command)
Eke: Animal
Eva: What is it?
Hawana: Many
He: I am (precedes an adjective)
Ho’oala: White man
Ka’aka’a: A now outlawed medicinal practice
Kanava: A tree; relation of the manama. Home of the vuaka
Ke: What? (Used as a response)
Lawa’a: A large fern resembling a Monstera
Lili’aka: Literally, “small sun”; equivalent to our summer and considered the most pleasant season (100 days)
Lili’ika: The Ivu’ivuan siesta; begins directly after the midday meal and lasts through most of the afternoon. On U’ivu, lili’ika was banned by King Tuima’ele in 1930, under the missionaries’ influence.
Lili’uaka: Literally, “small rain,” equivalent to our spring (100 days)
Ma: When preceding a word and followed by a glottal stop, an honorific (see below). Literally means “my” or “mine.”
Ma’alamakina: The traditional U’ivuan spear all males are given upon reaching fourteen o’anas
Makava: A tree that used to grow on U’ivu and now mostly grows on Ivu’ivu
Male’e: Hut
Manama: A tree with an edible fruit resembling a mango
Moa: Food
Mo’o: Without
No’aka: A coconutlike fruit; its shells are used as bowls by the islanders; more commonly known on U’ivu as uka moa, or “hog food”
O’ana: The U’ivuan year; 400 days
Ola’alu: The prehistoric U’ivuan hieroglyphic alphabet; rarely used in modern times
Tava: A cloth resembling kapa made from pounding palm leaves into a fiber
U’aka: The hottest season, equivalent to our autumn (100 days)
‘Uaka: The traditional wet season, equivalent to our winter; lasts for 100 days
Uka: Hog
Umaku: Sloth fat; used as a lubricant and a polish
Vuaka: A primitive micromonkey; considered a delicacy. Hunted to near extinction on U’ivu
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
My great thanks to Norman Hindley and Robert E. Hosmer for their early faith; to Fundacion Valparaiso and the New York Foundation for the Arts for their gifts of time and money; to Kaja Perina for her wit and good name; to David Ebershoff for his counsel and forbearance; to John McElwee for his humor and assistance; to Ravi Mirchandani for his charm and passion; to Jim Baker, Klara Glowczewska, and — especially — Kerry Lauerman for being delighted for me (even when I didn’t know how to be); and to Stephen Morrison for his comfort, constancy, excellent matchmaking skills, and beloved friendship.
I am so very grateful to everyone at Doubleday for their enthusiasm and care, in particular to Bill Thomas, to the smart, soothing, and hypercompetent Hannah Wood, and, most of all, to Gerry Howard for his advocacy and large-spiritedness, and for being the kind of editor who offers his engagement and intelligence with such grace and selflessness.
To the lovely and steadfast Anna Stein O’Sullivan, who believed from the start and whose opinion and advice I always treasure, my forever gratitude, respect, and affection. To Andrew Kidd, who saved me at a crucial moment and without whose brilliant editorial discernment and enduring support I would have been lost, my profound thanks.
I owe everything to Jared Hohlt, my first and favorite reader (and all-around superior human being), for his kindness, intelligence, patience, wisdom, and dear presence — but I hope he’ll settle for my inexpressible and unquantifiable love, thanks, trust, and apologies. Everyone should be so lucky to have such a friend.
And, finally, for all the qualities and generosities listed above, as well as their irreverence and taste, my deepest thanks to my parents, Ron and Susan. My father, in particular, has not only always encouraged but often abetted my every confabulation. For that, and for many other reasons besides, this book is dedicated to him.