About the Book
A mysterious beachcomber appears one day on the coastal bluffs near the small town of Carverville, a place 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 a gentrified motel, but his homecoming soon takes a sinister turn when he and a local teenager make a gruesome discovery on the beach. It forces 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 more sinister at work here than the 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.
About the Author :
David Downie, a native San Franciscan, lived in New York, Rome, and Milan before moving to Paris. Downie’s travel, food and arts features have been published worldwide. He is the author of two previous novels and over a dozen nonfiction history, travel and food books, including the highly acclaimed Paris, Paris; A Passion for Paris; Paris to the Pyrenees; and A Taste of Paris. He divides his time between France and Italy with his wife, the photographer Alison Harris.
Review :
"The tension ratchets up and the mysteries begin to unravel as Downie expertly captures the powerlessness and courage of those in peril."
"Part mystery, part family drama, David Downie’s richly imagined plot and masterful handling of details hooked me in from the start. His vivid and unforgettable characters, lush settings and page-turning narrative had me reading all night. Compelling and bittersweet. The Gardener of Eden lingered in my mind long after I finished it."
"The Gardener of Eden is a novel of great originality—lively, engaging, unexpected, sharp, and poetic. Downie is a master of the eerie and bizarre, and his character Beverley is one of the great literary creations of the century."
"David Downie evokes the fierce beauty of America’s northwest coast, peoples it with an assortment of appropriately offbeat characters and plunges them into a mystery that is pitch-perfect for the time and place. A compelling read that is more than a little ominous."
"An admirable and ambitious novel."
"David Downie writes like a poet. Not only will his evocative, lyrical style sweep you up in his story, but his characters will live in your head long after you’ve finished reading."
"A deftly crafted and engagingly entertaining novel about redemption, revenge, justice, love, and the eroding price of secrecy as a man and a community grapple with tortured pasts and a frightening future."
"A haunting, skillfully-woven tale of love, loss, redemption and revenge, set in a small town with a very, very dark secret."
"Downie’s characters are so real and his descriptions so detailed, I felt I was actually in the story—a helpless bystander. A perfect mix of sociopolitical commentary, suspense, and love."
"Graceful writing energized by a passionate undercurrent, overt or subtly and elegantly woven into the story. In The Gardener of Eden, Downie is at the top of his game."
"Zowie! When we think of David Downie, we probably flash on Paris or Rome. He kind of owns those places, so it's okay. His newest is something completely different, however. Completely. A moving and haunting fiction, set in a place no sybarite, no globe-trotter, would ever go. The kind of place where the resources that really matter are to be found within yourself."
"Like a path through the forest, the story twists abruptly, from strange discoveries to terrifying encounters, to a welcome late-in-life love story. With surprises and memorable characters at every turn, it’s an exhilarating ride."
"If you squint, you can see the dystopian world Downie conjures in The Gardener of Eden. Anyone who has lived in a small town may have seen Carverville, Downie’s fictional Cannery Row. The characters sparkle. The Eden Resort, its crumbling old pier on the Pacific, the pile of rusting cages on its lawn, and its menacing feral hogs bring the true horror of Carverville into focus. Five stars—exceptional."
"A haunting, luminous novel. This chilling yet lyrical page-turner explores the dark secrets lurking beneath the stunning natural beauty of Carverville, a dying timber town. 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. If Alfred Hitchcock were alive today, he would make the movie."
"Tense, yet surprisingly emotional, a literary triumph that deserves widespread attention, both as a piece of fantastic writing and as a warning to the inhumanities of the populist movement."
