From the Booker Prize-shortlisted author of Harvest and
Quarantine, a gorgeous, unforgettable retelling of the myth of Eden.
The inhabitants of Eden are untouched by death. In the garden they care
for their orchards and the land, and give thanks for their good fortune,
because they know that beyond the garden walls is a world where disease
and hunger rampage.
Eden is overseen by angels--their bodies covered in blue iridescent
feathers, their beaks sharp and curved. It is a pleasant place where no
one wants for a thing. But, as this story begins, something is wrong in
Eden. Because years after Adam and Eve left the garden, another
inhabitant has escaped...
Weaving together elements of the dystopian, but never letting go of the
sense of the sacred that saturates western myths of a perfect world
before the fall, Eden manages to be both a critique of those stories
and a sad reprise of their now-lost themes.
In Crace's wry, tender recreation, though, love does not bring the world
crashing down. It is love that redeems it.
