How long does it take to read Children of Paradise?
Children of Paradise by Fred D'Aguiar takes about 6 hours 39 minutes to read at 250 words a minute.
About 6 hours 39 minutes
A weekend read
First published 2014. 363 pages, about 99,825 words.
14 days at 30 minutes a day
Estimate based on 275 words per page.
At other speeds
| Slow, 150 words a minute | 11 hours 6 minutes |
| Average, 250 words a minute | 6 hours 39 minutes |
| Fast, 400 words a minute | 4 hours 10 minutes |
The page count is the median across 2 editions, so your copy may differ. How we calculate.
About the book
"Based on the terrible truths of Jonestown, Jim Jones's utopian commune in Guyana, Children of Paradise is a beautifully imagined novel that interweaves history and fiction to portray a mother and daughter's escape from the rule of a religious madman. Joyce and her young daughter, Trina, have followed a charismatic preacher from California to the wilds of Guyana, where a thousand congregants have cleared a swath of dense jungle and built a utopian society based on a rigid order guarded over by armed men and teenage 'prefects.' Each day ends with sermons that demonstrate the preacher's capricious violence and his utmost hostility toward even a whisper of skepticism. But try as the preacher may to block out the world, the commune's seclusion is being breached, first by tribal elders complaining of polluted river water downstream, then by an invisible presence that has helped a young boy to disappear, and finally with rumors of the imminent arrival of a congressional delegation on a fact-finding mission. As the camp begins rehearsing an endgame of mass suicide, Joyce and Trina attempt a daring escape, aided by a local boat captain and the most unlikely of prisoners--the extraordinary Adam, the commune's caged gorilla"--
Subjects: Captive wild animals, Cults, Suicide, Family life, Jungles, Water
