Secrets of Eden: A Novel [Paperback]

Chris Bohjalian (Author)

Book Description

Release date: February 1, 2011

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.” 

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. Bohjalian (Law of Similars) has built a reputation on his rich characters and immersing readers in diverse subjects—homeopathy, animal rights activism, midwifery—and his latest surely won't disappoint. The morning after her baptism into the Rev. Stephen Drew's Vermont Baptist church, Alice Hayward and her abusive husband are found dead in their home, an apparent murder-suicide. Stephen, the novel's first narrator, is so racked with guilt over his failure to save Alice that he leaves town. Soon, he meets Heather Laurent, the author of a book about angels whose own parents' marriage also ended in tragedy. Stephen's deeply sympathetic narration is challenged by the next two narrators: deputy state attorney Catherine Benincasa, whose suspicions are aroused initially by Stephen's abrupt departure (and then by questions about his relationship with Alice), and Heather, who distances herself from Stephen for similar reasons and risks the trip into her dark past by seeking out Katie, the Haywards' now-orphaned 15-year-old daughter who puts into play the final pieces of the puzzle, setting things up for a touching twist. Fans of Bohjalian's more exotic works will miss learning something new, but this is a masterfully human and compassionate tale. (Feb.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Bookmarks Magazine

Bohjalian skillfully intertwines different narrators and their conflicting perspectives on the same events to build tension and suspense. While the critics agreed that each voice is distinct, they did not consider the narrators equally convincing--particularly Reverend Drew (too detached and self-centered) and Catherine (too clichéd as the tough-as-nails attorney). Additionally, the Washington Post found Bohjalian's portrait of domestic violence somewhat flat and formulaic. Others, however, thought he tackled the subject with compassion and tact, and nearly all cited Heather's memories of her parents' marriage as some of the novel's most harrowing passages. Overall, Secrets of Eden is the enjoyable thrilleresque novel that readers have come to expect from Bohjalian. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 400 pages
• Publisher: Broadway; Reprint edition (February 1, 2011)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0307394980
• ISBN-13: 978-0307394989
• Product Dimensions: 5.2 x 0.8 x 8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (154 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #97,930 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Chris Bohjalian's new novel, The Light in the Ruins, arrives in July 2013. It's the tale of two young women in war-ravaged Tuscany in 1943 and 1944, one a partisan and one a noblewoman in love with a German lieutenant.

His most recent novel, The Sandcastle Girls, was published in July 2012 to great acclaim. A love story set in the midst of the Armenian Genocide, it debuted at #7 on the New York Times bestseller list, and appeared as well on the Publishers' Weekly, USA Today, and national Independent Bookstore bestseller lists.

USA Today called it "stirring. . .a deeply moving story of survival and enduring love." Entertainment Weekly observed, "Bohjalian - the grandson of Armenian survivors - pours passion, pride, and sadness into his tale of ethnic destruction and endurance." And the Washington Post concluded that the novel was "intense. . .staggering. . .and utterly riveting." The Sandcastle Girls was also an Oprah.com Book of the Week.

It was also a Washington Post, Library Journal, a Kirkus Reviews, and a BookPage "Best Book" of 2012.

He is the author of fifteen books, including the other New York Times bestsellers, The Night Strangers, Secrets of Eden, Skeletons at the Feast, The Double Bind, Before Your Know Kindness, and Midwives.

Chris's awards include the ANCA Arts and Letters Award for The Sandcastle Girls, as well as the Saint Mesrob Mashdots Medal; the New England Society Book Award for The Night Strangers; the New England Book Award; a Boston Public Library Literary Light; and the Anahid Literary Award. His novel, Midwives, was a number one New York Times bestseller, a selection of Oprah's Book Club, and a New England Booksellers Association Discovery pick. His earlier novels have been selected as "Best Books of the Year" by the Washington Post, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, the Hartford Courant, Publishers' Weekly, and Salon. His work had been translated into over 25 languages and three times become movies (Secrets of Eden, Midwives, and Past the Bleachers).

He has written for a wide variety of magazines, including Cosmopolitan, Reader's Digest, and the Boston Globe Sunday Magazine, and has been a columnist for Gannett's Burlington Free Press since 1992. Chris graduated from Amherst College, and lives in Vermont with his wife and daughter.

Amazon Author Rankbeta 

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#61 in Books > Literature & Fiction > Genre Fiction > Historical

#81 in Kindle eBooks > Literature & Fiction > Historical

#88 in Books > Literature & Fiction > Literary

#61 in Books > Literature & Fiction > Genre Fiction > Historical

#81 in Kindle eBooks > Literature & Fiction > Historical

#88 in Books > Literature & Fiction > Literary

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

114 of 119 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars It's a Good One full of small town secrets! January 26, 2010

By Bibliophile By the Sea TOP 1000 REVIEWERVINE™ VOICE

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

31 of 34 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars "We never outgrow those small, wounded things we were." January 26, 2010

By Luan Gaines HALL OF FAMETOP 500 REVIEWERVINE™ VOICE

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.

18 of 20 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Another entertaining novel from this author January 29, 2010

By sb-lynn TOP 500 REVIEWER

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.