Edge of Eden ebook

by Helen Benedict

Helen Benedict, a Columbia University professor, has written four previous novels, five nonfiction books, and a. .THE EDGE OF EDEN is an engaging psychological suspense tale as the audience wonders who will be the last female standing on the Seychelles and will Rupert be at her side.

Helen Benedict, a Columbia University professor, has written four previous novels, five nonfiction books, and a play. Her novels have received citations for best book of the year from the Los Angeles Times and the Chicago and New York public libraries.

Edge of Eden Paperback – Bargain Price, November 1, 2010. Benedict (The Lonely Soldier) chronicles a year in the life of a foolish but surprisingly sympathetic British family that relocates to the equatorial paradise of the Seychelles, located between India and Africa. by. Helen Benedict (Author). Find all the books, read about the author, and more. Are you an author? Learn about Author Central. In 1960, Rupert Weston accepts a post in the remote British colony without consulting his wife, Penelope, and his decision isn't well received.

Helen Benedict is an American novelist and journalist, best known for her writings on social injustice and the Iraq War. Benedict was born in London, England, to parents who were American anthropologists. As a child, she lived in Mauritius and Seychelles, where her parents conducted fieldwork. Seychelles became the setting for Benedict's novel, The Edge of Eden. Her background as a child of anthropologists has informed her work both as a novelist and a journalist.

Benedict (The Lonely Soldier) chronicles a year in the life of a foolish but surprisingly sympathetic British family .

Benedict (The Lonely Soldier) chronicles a year in the life of a foolish but surprisingly sympathetic British family that relocates to the equatorial paradise of the Seychelles, located between India and Africa.

The Edge of Eden book. Helen Benedict’s acerbic wit and lush descriptions serve up a page-turner brimming with jealousy, sex, and witchcraft in a darkly exotic Eden

The Edge of Eden book. Helen Benedict’s acerbic wit and lush descriptions serve up a page-turner brimming with jealousy, sex, and witchcraft in a darkly exotic Eden. Helen Benedict, a Columbia University professor, has written four previous novels, five nonfiction books, and a play.

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A British diplomat drags his wife and children to the Seychelles in 1960, but it is not a paradise for all: Wonderful. To read this book, upload an EPUB or FB2 file to Bookmate.

The Edge of Eden - Helen Benedict. The art of being a slave is to rule one’s master. Published by Soho Press, Inc. 853 Broadway.

Helen Benedict’s acerbic wit and lush descriptions serve up a page-turner brimming with jealousy, sex, and . An armchair traveler’s delight, Benedict’s novel is an amusingly poignant look at the British abroad in the spirit of Evelyn Waugh.

Helen Benedict’s acerbic wit and lush descriptions serve up a page-turner brimming with jealousy, sex, and witchcraft in a darkly exotic Eden. Also by Helen Benedict. See all books by Helen Benedict. Category: Literary Fiction. Looking for More Great Reads? Discover Book Picks from the CEO of Penguin Random House US. Close. Download Hi Res.

In 1960, when her husband, Rupert, a British diplomat, is posted to the remote Seychelle Islands in the Indian Ocean, Penelope is less than thrilled. But she never imagined the danger that awaited her family there. Her sun-kissed children run barefoot on the beach and become enraptured by the ancient magic, or grigri, in the tropical colonial outpost. Rupert, meanwhile, falls under the spell of a local beauty who won’t stop until she gets what she wants. Desperate to save her marriage, Penelope turns to black magic, exposing her family to the island’s sinister underbelly. Ultimately, Penny and her family suffer unimaginable casualties, rendering their lives profoundly and forever changed. Helen Benedict’s acerbic wit and lush descriptions serve up a page-turner brimming with jealousy, sex, and witchcraft in a darkly exotic Eden.

Llanonte

this is a well woven story of a family in the exotic setting of Mahe, Seychelles. The 'Gri-gri' (magic of the Island) is never far away from the events which describe a marriage in crisis. Benedict tells of the history of the Islands, and the Seychellois culture, without being too pedantic. The birds, fish and plants are revealed as the story unfolds. I read it whist on holiday in the Islands, and found it informative and compelling. The author clearly knows the area well.

Foxanayn

Really great read!

MARK BEN FORD

As their ship draws near the Seychelles Islands in 1960, husband and wife Rupert and Penelope Weston have different expectations, their family in trouble long before setting foot on an island paradise once a hub of the slave trade, now the awkward stepchild of British colonialism. Rupert is a bureaucrat looking forward to his new posting; Penelope is resentful, unwilling to transplant their daughters, Zara, eight, and Chloe, three, homesick for London even as the lush vegetation of the islands beckon. Germinating on the long voyage, this conflict blooms once the Weston's arrive in their new home. The children run wild, unkempt and unwashed, Rupert consumed by work, Penelope sinking into apathy, barely able to leave her room, moody and desperate.

The dark-skinned, impish Zara sees everything as an adventure, shadowing the servants, learning about island superstitions and grigri, concocting her own spells. Benedict tracks the fault line through this family with stunning clarity in the children's behavior, Zara's fascination with spells and her penchant for torturing Chloe, the sweet child with dimples and blonde curls who has already fallen through the cracks of her parent's attention. Zara is increasingly worried about the "devil worm" that has taken over Penelope's personality, so worried about her mother that she fails to notice that her father comes home less and less frequently. This is a place where spells make powerful magic, where lovers can be bound to one another and straying husbands returned, Rupert's secretary, Joelle, already actively seducing him away from Penelope, determined to replace his worthless wife. And why not? Joelle deserves the luxuries Penelope enjoys.

The landscape is ominous, lush with beauty and tragic history, filled with superstition and the natives' distrust of the English, deeply religious yet unshakably devoted to arcane superstitions for protection from evil. The Weston's have no chance, each adult absorbed in his own needs, Zara frantically gathering information for powerful spells to control her environment. It is not surprising, then, when an innocent becomes the victim of the jealousy of women, when potent medicine falls into the wrong hands and the foolishness of adults comes crashing down in tragedy. Benedict describes it all, from the brewing antagonism between husband and wife to the jealousy of Rupert's lover to the carelessness of a nanny who has a new man on her mind and no eyes for the children in her care. On the islands, rules are lax, passion triumphs over logic and innocents are lost along the way. Paradise is bountiful and fecund, noisy with the demands of its inhabitants. Moments slide by, opportunities missed, loved ones lost as paradise claims its price. Luan Gaines/ 2009.

Dagdalas

In 1960, the Colonial Office informs lowest tier British diplomat Rupert that he is being assigned to the French Creole speaking Seychelle Islands in the Indian Ocean. His wife Penelope is outraged with the assignment's location and Rupert's blithely ordering her that she and their two daughters accompany him. On the sea voyage to the isolated Crown Colony, Penelope becomes sea sick while Rupert flirts with another female so ignores his two children as the eight year old Zara bullies her three years old sibling.

Upon reaching their destination, Penelope feels like an outsider even with her family, but not with the Colonial Governor. Her children take to the island "paradise" as if they lived there all their lives. Rupert focuses more on his native secretary Joelle instead of the economics report he is to develop or his family. When the marriage collapses, Zara turns to the local witch doctors for a love spell to reunite her family while now pregnant Joelle turns to the same grigri magical practitioners to send Penelope back to England without her Rupert. Desperate to save her marriage and family, Penelope also pleads with the black magical users for help.

This is an intriguing historical thriller that readers will enjoy though wonder what the three females see in Rupert, which is one of their two constants (the other being each turns to grigri), as the women's inspirational muses seem to change with each calamity. The story line is fast-paced while also hyperbolizing satire to make a point about clashing civilizations. THE EDGE OF EDEN is an engaging psychological suspense tale as the audience wonders who will be the last female standing on the Seychelles and will Rupert be at her side.

Harriet Klausner

Zeks Horde

This is a fantastic read if you like to feel the time, place, and characters as if they are real.

Cordanara

I just glanced at the cover and was wondering if it is a Michael Adams painting?