- Paperback: 378 pages
- Publisher: Broadway Books; Reprint edition (Feb 2011)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0307394980
- ISBN-13: 978-0307394989
- Product Dimensions: 13.2 x 2.1 x 20.3 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 1,710,312 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Description
Product Description
A LIFETIME TV MOVIE STARRING JOHN STAMOS COMING FEBRUARY 2012
From the bestselling author of The Double Bind, Midwives, and Skeletons at the Feast comes a novel of shattered faith, intimate secrets, and the delicate nature of sacrifice.
"There," says Alice Hayward to Reverend Stephen Drew, just after her baptism, and just before going home to the husband who will kill her that evening and then shoot himself. Drew, tortured by the cryptic finality of that short utterance, feels his faith in God slipping away and is saved from despair only by a meeting with Heather Laurent, the author of wildly successful, inspirational books about . . . angels.
Heather survived a childhood that culminated in her own parents' murder-suicide, so she identifies deeply with Alice’s daughter, Katie, offering herself as a mentor to the girl and a shoulder for Stephen – who flees the pulpit to be with Heather and see if there is anything to be salvaged from the spiritual wreckage around him.
But then the State's Attorney begins to suspect that Alice's husband may not have killed himself. . .and finds out that Alice had secrets only her minister knew.
Secrets of Eden is both a haunting literary thriller and a deeply evocative testament to the inner complexities that mark all of our lives. Once again Chris Bohjalian has given us a riveting page-turner in which nothing is precisely what it seems. As one character remarks, “Believe no one. Trust no one. Assume all of our stories are suspect.”
From the bestselling author of The Double Bind, Midwives, and Skeletons at the Feast comes a novel of shattered faith, intimate secrets, and the delicate nature of sacrifice.
"There," says Alice Hayward to Reverend Stephen Drew, just after her baptism, and just before going home to the husband who will kill her that evening and then shoot himself. Drew, tortured by the cryptic finality of that short utterance, feels his faith in God slipping away and is saved from despair only by a meeting with Heather Laurent, the author of wildly successful, inspirational books about . . . angels.
Heather survived a childhood that culminated in her own parents' murder-suicide, so she identifies deeply with Alice’s daughter, Katie, offering herself as a mentor to the girl and a shoulder for Stephen – who flees the pulpit to be with Heather and see if there is anything to be salvaged from the spiritual wreckage around him.
But then the State's Attorney begins to suspect that Alice's husband may not have killed himself. . .and finds out that Alice had secrets only her minister knew.
Secrets of Eden is both a haunting literary thriller and a deeply evocative testament to the inner complexities that mark all of our lives. Once again Chris Bohjalian has given us a riveting page-turner in which nothing is precisely what it seems. As one character remarks, “Believe no one. Trust no one. Assume all of our stories are suspect.”
About the Author
Chris Bohjalian is the critically acclaimed author of 11 novels, including Skeletons at the Feast and his most recent New York Times bestseller, The Double Bind, published by Pocket Books. His work has been translated into eighteen languages and published in twenty-one countries. He lives in Vermont with his wife and daughter.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
The events leading up to the violent deaths of Alice Hayward and her sadistic husband George are told from the points of view of four characters - Reverend Drew (the pastor who baptises Alice shortly before her death), Catherine Benincasa (an investigative lawyer), Heather Laurent (an author who writes about encounters with angels, and claims to have met a few herself), and the couple's daughter Katie. Their stories unfold consecutively, rather than via alternating chapters (a technique I'm getting a bit bored with) and it was interesting to hear their differing accounts. At least two of them appear to be very unreliable narrators - or are they? The reader is never quite sure whose version of events to believe.
Heather Laurent is a slightly implausible but intriguing character - she suffered a similar tragedy in her own childhood and reaches out to Katie Hayward to try to help the traumatised girl through her grief. My opinion of Reverend Drew kept changing; alternating between hero and villain as the story unfolded. I thought I was going to enjoy Katie's narrative the least - at first she comes across as a typical American teen, peppering her speech with "like" and even "gnarly" - but her moving account of her parents' violent and abusive marriage (she describes living with her father as "waiting for the boiler to explode") draws the various strands of the plot together really well, culminating in an emotional final chapter with a fairly predictable but still satisfying 'twist' at the end.
After the slightly disappointing Skeletons at the Feast, I'd say Chris Bohjalian is back on familiar territory and thankfully back on form with this one.
Heather Laurent is a slightly implausible but intriguing character - she suffered a similar tragedy in her own childhood and reaches out to Katie Hayward to try to help the traumatised girl through her grief. My opinion of Reverend Drew kept changing; alternating between hero and villain as the story unfolded. I thought I was going to enjoy Katie's narrative the least - at first she comes across as a typical American teen, peppering her speech with "like" and even "gnarly" - but her moving account of her parents' violent and abusive marriage (she describes living with her father as "waiting for the boiler to explode") draws the various strands of the plot together really well, culminating in an emotional final chapter with a fairly predictable but still satisfying 'twist' at the end.
After the slightly disappointing Skeletons at the Feast, I'd say Chris Bohjalian is back on familiar territory and thankfully back on form with this one.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I was a sceptical reader of this book, but having heard rave reviews about it I thought I would see what it was all about. I'm so very glad I did! The story is told in Four or Five sections by different characters. Told in a fashion more like a revealing disclosure by a friend of the happenings and their part in the tale rather than just a progression of the storyline. This is well done and despite not being a huge fan of one or two of the characters I still felt compelled to read their perspective. You gained a deeper insight to their characters, felt the conflicting perceptions on what occured, and indeed discovered more about their flaws and beliefs. A few reviewers claim there is this sudden twist to the story, I'm not sure that is entirely true as I had guessed the ending quiet early on. However, this did not make the book any less enjoyable a read, indeed it heightened the sense of condemnation that can exist in such situations. Definitely worth reading.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
144 reviews
110 of 116 people found the following review helpful
It's a Good One full of small town secrets!
26 Jan 2010
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Vine™ Review
(What's this?)
The title alone of Chris Bohjalian's latest book: The Secrets of Eden, drew me in, and never let go. Having read all of this author's books, I can say without a doubt that Bohjalian is one of those talented authors, who can expertly write about controversial subject matters and family issues while keeping the reader hanging on and anxiously turning the pages,
Secrets of Eden takes place in the small town of Haverill, Vermont. The story is told through the perspectives of four central characters. From the very first pages the reader gets a feel of what is going on in the mind of Reverend Stephen Drew of the local Baptist Church......
(p.3) "On those sorts of Sundays, whenever someone would stand and ask for prayers for something relatively minor -- a promotion, traveling mercies, a broken leg that would surely mend --I would find myself thinking as I stood in the pulpit, 'Get a spine, you bloody ingrate! Buck Up! That lady behind you is about to lose her husband to pancreatic cancer, and you're whining about your difficult boss? Oh please! -- I never said that sort of thing aloud, but I think it is only because I'm from a particularly mild mannered suburb of New York City, and so my family has to be drunk, to be cutting. I did love my congregation, but I also knew that I had an inordinate number of whiners."
And, while all small towns have their secrets, no one including the Rev. Drew, was prepared for what would happen on the very day he baptized one of his own parishioners. On the very day that Alice Hayward came to be baptized in Brookner's pond, she along with her husband George would be found dead. The Haywards, along with their teenage daughter Katie were prominent members of the community. At first their deaths were believed to be a murder-suicide, but when the State's attorney, Catherine Benincasa, begins to investigate she is not so sure. Slowly secrets are revealed, which help to unravel the mystery behind the deaths.
I don't want to reveal too much more about this story other than to say that there was one other prominent character in the story which I feel I need to mention. Heather Laurent is an author of spiritual books about angels. While Heather is in the area giving a talk at Bennington College, she hears about the murder-suicide and visits Rev. Drew to see if she can provide some spiritual assistance. Heather seems drawn to the Reverend, and becomes somewhat of a mentor to 15-year old Katie Hayward. Heather, like Katie, lost her parents to spousal abuse when she was about Katie's age.
MY THOUGHTS - In this riveting literary suspense novel, the author does a wonderful job with a difficult subject --spousal abuse, and its effects on a family and community. The author has created a vivid sense of place, a believable story, well drawn out characters and surprises along the way. Readers who enjoy compelling novels that touch on human emotions should not be disappointed with Secrets of Eden. RECOMMENDED
Secrets of Eden takes place in the small town of Haverill, Vermont. The story is told through the perspectives of four central characters. From the very first pages the reader gets a feel of what is going on in the mind of Reverend Stephen Drew of the local Baptist Church......
(p.3) "On those sorts of Sundays, whenever someone would stand and ask for prayers for something relatively minor -- a promotion, traveling mercies, a broken leg that would surely mend --I would find myself thinking as I stood in the pulpit, 'Get a spine, you bloody ingrate! Buck Up! That lady behind you is about to lose her husband to pancreatic cancer, and you're whining about your difficult boss? Oh please! -- I never said that sort of thing aloud, but I think it is only because I'm from a particularly mild mannered suburb of New York City, and so my family has to be drunk, to be cutting. I did love my congregation, but I also knew that I had an inordinate number of whiners."
And, while all small towns have their secrets, no one including the Rev. Drew, was prepared for what would happen on the very day he baptized one of his own parishioners. On the very day that Alice Hayward came to be baptized in Brookner's pond, she along with her husband George would be found dead. The Haywards, along with their teenage daughter Katie were prominent members of the community. At first their deaths were believed to be a murder-suicide, but when the State's attorney, Catherine Benincasa, begins to investigate she is not so sure. Slowly secrets are revealed, which help to unravel the mystery behind the deaths.
I don't want to reveal too much more about this story other than to say that there was one other prominent character in the story which I feel I need to mention. Heather Laurent is an author of spiritual books about angels. While Heather is in the area giving a talk at Bennington College, she hears about the murder-suicide and visits Rev. Drew to see if she can provide some spiritual assistance. Heather seems drawn to the Reverend, and becomes somewhat of a mentor to 15-year old Katie Hayward. Heather, like Katie, lost her parents to spousal abuse when she was about Katie's age.
MY THOUGHTS - In this riveting literary suspense novel, the author does a wonderful job with a difficult subject --spousal abuse, and its effects on a family and community. The author has created a vivid sense of place, a believable story, well drawn out characters and surprises along the way. Readers who enjoy compelling novels that touch on human emotions should not be disappointed with Secrets of Eden. RECOMMENDED
31 of 34 people found the following review helpful
"We never outgrow those small, wounded things we were."
26 Jan 2010
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Vine™ Review
(What's this?)
Bohjalian has written a provocative novel of faith and angels, murder and abuse in a bucolic Haverill, Vermont. In alternating chapters, each character reveals his perspective of the local murder-suicide of George and Alice Hayward, as the author explores humanity's tendencies to proffer judgments in the face of tragedy. For Reverend Stephen Drew, the murder-suicide engenders a crisis of faith. Alice was his parishioner, her fifteen-year-old daughter, Katie, a former member of the church's youth group. In fact, Stephen baptized Alice Hayward the morning of her death, Alice's only cryptic comment after her full immersion in the water, "there". Now Stephen is left to ponder the significance of that single word.
Heather Laurent, author of two best-selling books about the existence of angels, is drawn to the tragedy, to Stephen and to Katie, because of her personal history. Angels have had a profound influence on Heather's daily existence; in fact, the appearance of an angel has saved her from a suicide attempt. It is only natural, then, that Heather should find herself at the rectory with Rev. Drew, and through him to Katie, Alice's daughter. The immediate spark between minister and author is undeniable, he of dwindling faith, she full of grace. But reality is seldom as it appears, Heather ultimately facing yet another test of her soul: "I had allowed my mortal judgment to cloud my celestial instincts."
When forensics evidence indicates murder, States Attorney Catherine Benincasa is not inclined toward existential discussions of faith or the beneficence of angels. Hers is a world of cold, hard facts and the facts point to one particular suspect. As local residents clamor for a resolution to the murders within their midst, Benincasa's boss bows to the pressure of his constituency, demanding results sooner rather than later. It is only for lack of critical evidence that the main suspect remains free. Then there is Katie, coping with the enormity of her loss and navigating a place suddenly filled with gossip about her parents and befriended by an ethereal angel of mercy, Heather.
The issue of domestic abuse takes center stage as a primary character, a husband's rage fueled by alcohol, his wife suffering in silence until her death reveals the ugly secrets and collateral damage of a family in crisis. Like a puppeteer, Bohjalian manipulates suspicions, reactions, an unexpected romance and reality obscured by each character's personal prejudices. Bedeviled by moral ambiguity, Secrets of Eden is filled with small, painful truths, angels and horrors dancing unrestrained on the head of a pin. Luan Gaines/2010.
Heather Laurent, author of two best-selling books about the existence of angels, is drawn to the tragedy, to Stephen and to Katie, because of her personal history. Angels have had a profound influence on Heather's daily existence; in fact, the appearance of an angel has saved her from a suicide attempt. It is only natural, then, that Heather should find herself at the rectory with Rev. Drew, and through him to Katie, Alice's daughter. The immediate spark between minister and author is undeniable, he of dwindling faith, she full of grace. But reality is seldom as it appears, Heather ultimately facing yet another test of her soul: "I had allowed my mortal judgment to cloud my celestial instincts."
When forensics evidence indicates murder, States Attorney Catherine Benincasa is not inclined toward existential discussions of faith or the beneficence of angels. Hers is a world of cold, hard facts and the facts point to one particular suspect. As local residents clamor for a resolution to the murders within their midst, Benincasa's boss bows to the pressure of his constituency, demanding results sooner rather than later. It is only for lack of critical evidence that the main suspect remains free. Then there is Katie, coping with the enormity of her loss and navigating a place suddenly filled with gossip about her parents and befriended by an ethereal angel of mercy, Heather.
The issue of domestic abuse takes center stage as a primary character, a husband's rage fueled by alcohol, his wife suffering in silence until her death reveals the ugly secrets and collateral damage of a family in crisis. Like a puppeteer, Bohjalian manipulates suspicions, reactions, an unexpected romance and reality obscured by each character's personal prejudices. Bedeviled by moral ambiguity, Secrets of Eden is filled with small, painful truths, angels and horrors dancing unrestrained on the head of a pin. Luan Gaines/2010.
17 of 19 people found the following review helpful
Another entertaining novel from this author
29 Jan 2010
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Vine™ Review
(What's this?)
Brief summary and review, no spoilers.
The story starts out just after the deaths of George and Alice Hayward, in an apparent murder/suicide. The location is a small town in Vermont, where many knew that Alice was an abused wife.
The story is broken up into several sections, each narrated by a different person. We hear from the town pastor, who harbors a guilty secret. We hear from a woman who writes books about angels, who becomes involved because her own parents killed themselves in a murder/suicide. We hear from law enforcement, and from family members, including Katie, the only child of the Haywards who is rightfully traumatized by her parents death.
What's nice about this technique of multiple narrators, is that we get a Rashomon like effect - each narrator tells their perspective of the facts, and it is only at the end when we know the complete truth, and how some of what we were told was wrong.
This story is not only a mystery, but also an informative look at spousal battery and alcoholism, and their effect on family members. In fact, we see how addiction and abuse affect can often hinder our ability to make social and personal connections later on in life.
Recommended. If you have enjoyed Chris Bohjalian books in the past, such as Midwives or The Double Bind, you will probably enjoy this.
The story starts out just after the deaths of George and Alice Hayward, in an apparent murder/suicide. The location is a small town in Vermont, where many knew that Alice was an abused wife.
The story is broken up into several sections, each narrated by a different person. We hear from the town pastor, who harbors a guilty secret. We hear from a woman who writes books about angels, who becomes involved because her own parents killed themselves in a murder/suicide. We hear from law enforcement, and from family members, including Katie, the only child of the Haywards who is rightfully traumatized by her parents death.
What's nice about this technique of multiple narrators, is that we get a Rashomon like effect - each narrator tells their perspective of the facts, and it is only at the end when we know the complete truth, and how some of what we were told was wrong.
This story is not only a mystery, but also an informative look at spousal battery and alcoholism, and their effect on family members. In fact, we see how addiction and abuse affect can often hinder our ability to make social and personal connections later on in life.
Recommended. If you have enjoyed Chris Bohjalian books in the past, such as Midwives or The Double Bind, you will probably enjoy this.
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