Description
Book Synopsis2017 Beverly Hills Book Award Winner in New Fiction 2017 Beverly Hills Book Award Winner in Women's Fiction 2018 IBPA Ben Franklin Finalist in Best New Voices: Fiction Becca Meister Fitzpatrick—wife, mother, grandmother, and pillar of the community—is the dutiful steward of her family’s iconic summer tradition . . . until she discovers her recently deceased husband squandered their nest egg. As she struggles to accept that this is likely her last season in Long Harbor, Becca is inspired by her granddaughter’s boldness in the face of impending single-motherhood, and summons the courage to reveal a secret she was forced to bury long ago: the existence of a daughter she gave up fifty years ago. The question now is how her other daughter, Rachel—with whom Becca has always had a strained relationship—will react. Eden is the account of the days leading up to the Fourth of July weekend, as Becca prepares to disclose her secret and her son and brothers conspire to put the estate on the market, interwoven with the century-old history of Becca’s family—her parents’ beginnings and ascent into affluence, and her mother’s own secret struggles in the grand home her father named “Eden.”
Trade Review"The 2000 summer season in fictional Long Harbor, Rhode Island, becomes the setting for a family reunion and the revelation of a long-held secret, not to mention the airing of more than a few resentments, in this debut novel. An engrossing, character-driven family saga.” —Kirkus "Eden is [a] poignant and powerful debut novel." —Reader Views "With familial drama so mesmerizing and gripping from the first page, it’s hard to believe that this is only Blasberg’s first literary blessing to the world." —Brit+Co “ . . . [A] beautifully written masterpiece that takes you on a historical journey inside a tormented family’s summer home to reveal painful secrets, utter heartbreak, and major family drama. An inspiring first novel.” —Boston Herald "A stirring historical novel perfect for women's fiction fans.” —Booklist "Eden is not just another farewell-to-the-summer-house novel, but instead a masterfully interwoven family saga with indelible characters, unforgettable stories, and true pathos. Most impressive, there's not an ounce of fat on this excellent book." —Anita Shreve, author of The Stars are Fire "Eden is a heartbreaking novel about the wounds that are passed down through generations. Blasberg’s voice is strong and clear, and her characters are so real—with their ambitions and their weaknesses, their good intentions and their resentments—that no reader is likely to forget them." —Ivy Pochoda, author of Visitation Street "Jeanne Blasberg¹s brilliant first novel conjures a family home so poignantly that I feel as if I¹ve returned there every summer of my life. In Eden, Blasberg invites us into the fearsome echo chamber of a dysfunctional family, and shows us ‹ in unsparing, crystalline prose how the members of such a family can begin to make their way into the light." —Louisa Hall, author of Speak and The Carriage House
