Moai in a Bottle

Fans of the recent HBO series Chernobyl might find time to dig into the bonus commentary and discover that the character played by Emily Watson is, in fact, a composite of dozens of Russian scientists. Such are the benefits of fiction when recounting scientific achievement. In her ambitious non-­fiction exploration of the 1964–65 Canadian-­led expedition to Easter Island, or Rapa Nui, Jacalyn Duffin makes it clear there will be no detail left unexplored, no missing bibliographic data, and certainly nothing resembling a composite.

The result is a capacious book in which an old story is ushered back into the light, thanks to sometimes overwhelming bursts of detail. In many ways, Stanley’s Dream is several books crammed into one. It includes an account of the scientific journey to Rapa Nui, an extensive examination of what did and did not happen to the scientific findings in the decades since, and its own sequel in the form of Duffin’s...