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.
Genre: Literary Fiction
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.
Genre: Literary Fiction
Praise for this book
"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." - Patricia Bracewell
"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." - Ellen Crosby
"A haunting, skillfully-woven tale of love, loss, redemption and revenge, set in a small town with a very, very dark secret." - T M Logan
"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." - Elizabeth McKenzie
"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." - Angela Scipioni
"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." - Ellen Crosby
"A haunting, skillfully-woven tale of love, loss, redemption and revenge, set in a small town with a very, very dark secret." - T M Logan
"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." - Elizabeth McKenzie
"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." - Angela Scipioni
Used availability for David Downie's The Gardener of Eden