A haunting and luminous novelthat explores the dark secrets lurking
beneath the stunning natural beauty of a dying timber town.
A mysterious beachcomber appears one day on the coastal bluffs near
Carverville, whose best days are long behind it. Who is he, and why has
he returned after nearly forty years?
Carverville's prodigal son, James, serendipitously finds work at the
Eden Seaside Resort & Cottages, a gentrified motel, but soon finds his
homecoming taking a sinister turn when he and a local teenager make a
gruesome discovery, which force him to reckon with the ghosts of his
past--and the dangers of the present. Rumors, distrust, and conspiracies
spread among the townsfolk, all of them seemingly trapped in their
claustrophobic and isolated world. But is there something even more
sinister at work than mere fear of outsiders?
In The Gardener of Eden, David Downie weaves an intricate and
compelling narrative of redemption, revenge, justice, and love--and the
price of secrecy, as a community grapples with its tortured past and
frightening future.