When Jack Parker's father dies Jack knows one thing: Tom Parker was a
good man. Beyond that, decades of distance and silence had kept the two
men from truly knowing each other. Jack attends the funeral with the
hope he can shovel some dirt onto Tom's casket, collect a few
commiserations, and put miles between himself and the questions he'd let
simmer since he'd left home years before. But when a group of strangers
appears at the funeral, Jack realizes he has more questions than answers
about how his father actually lived his life.
Jack picks up the pieces, moving back home to help his ailing mother and
continue work on his father's many projects. He soon finds himself at
the center of a family maelstrom, worsened by his troubled siblings'
lives and continued unearthings of Tom's secrecy. Haunted by hazy
nightmares from his youth and driven by guilt, Jack tries to uncover why
his father kept such a considerable part of his life from them all. The
secrets Jack uncovers might shake the foundation of the refuge he hopes
to create.
Suddenly thrust into a dangerous world of drug deals and violence, Jack
is forced to examine his own brutal limits and those of his father. When
finally faced with the truth of his and Tom's past, he realizes that
sometimes secrets are best left buried on the river bottom.
A Wild Eden was the 2018 South Carolina Novel Prize winner, selected
by Jill McCorkle.
