Secrets of Eden

A Novel

By: Chris Bohjalian

Narrated by: Mark Bramhall, Susan Denaker, Rebecca Lowman, Kathe Mazur

INDIE NEXT PICK • 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.”©2010 Random House Audio; ©2010 Chris Bohjalian

Kept my attention

Chris Bohjalian's story unfolds in a way that keeps you listening and wondering what will happen next. Each character is multifaceted and no major character is simply a device to move the story forward. The people in the story are not "good" or "bad". They are people dealing with stress and trauma and sometimes don't make good decisions.

The audio recording uses different narrators for different parts which is very effective in keeping the listener engaged.

The story has a twist at the end, which happens in all the Bohjalian novels I've read. The story line, the characters, the language, and the readers will keep you hanging on every word until the last one. And then you'll wish it wasn't over.

Loved this book!

Such an awesome book. I would recommend it to everyone. I couldn't put it down.

Big surprises come in small packages.

l loved the flow of the story from beginning to end . Each character stands out. It was a real page turner and I kept waiting fo a shoe to drop. And when it did ! Wow!

Kept my interest

Any additional comments?

I've been re-listening to my purchases from 6 years ago, and this one flew by (on fast playback) as I did projects around the house. I enjoyed having the different characters each take a section of the book. A few brief stories the State's Attorney told about her young children were amusing, but the majority of the book was dealing with abuse, alcoholism, murder-suicide, loss of faith...so be ready for that.

disappointing

Characters were shallow, plot was
uninspired and unconvincing. I usually enjoy this author’s work, but this had little to offer.