
Secrets of Eden
A Novel
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Narrated by:
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Mark Bramhall
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Susan Denaker
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Rebecca Lowman
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Kathe Mazur
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By:
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Chris Bohjalian
About this listen
From the best-selling 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.
©2010 Chris Bohjalian; 2010 Random House AudioListeners also enjoyed...
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Critic reviews
"Superb.... Fans of Bohjalian's 11 other novels (including Midwives) know to expect the unexpected and, thanks to his creativity and cunning, readers usually get walloped by one heck of a plot twist by book's end. In Secrets of Eden, the old saw that none of us knows what really goes on in a house when the shades are drawn rings chillingly true." (Carol Memmott, USA Today)
"Superbly written - vivid and horrifying without being melodramatic....a tribute to Bohjalian's storytelling skill." (The Boston Globe)
"Suspenseful...searing...Bohjalian has written a literary murder mystery that hooks readers early and keeps its secrets until the end.... Bohjalian's book is about the power of secrets and sacrifice and a warning against jumping to judgment. Those who doubt their faith, he writes, are sometimes the strongest among us." (Amy Driscoll, The Miami Herald)
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Close Your Eyes, Hold Hands
- A Novel
- By: Chris Bohjalian
- Narrated by: Grace Blewer
- Length: 8 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
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Close Your Eyes, Hold Hands is the story of Emily Shepard, a homeless teen living in an igloo made of ice and trash bags filled with frozen leaves. Half a year earlier, a nuclear plant in Vermont's Northeast Kingdom had experienced a cataclysmic meltdown, and both of Emily's parents were killed. Devastatingly, her father was in charge of the plant, and the meltdown may have been his fault. Was he drunk when it happened?
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Overall a good book, but poorly narrated
- By Cecilia on 09-02-14
By: Chris Bohjalian
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Skeletons at the Feast
- By: Chris Bohjalian
- Narrated by: Mark Bramhall
- Length: 12 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
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In January 1945, in the waning months of World War II, a small group of people begin the longest journey of their lives: An attempt to cross the remnants of the Third Reich, from Warsaw to the Rhine if necessary, to reach the British and American lines. As they work their way west, they encounter a countryside ravaged by war. Their flight will test both Anna’s and Callum’s love, as well as their friendship with Manfred - assuming any of them even survive.
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Disappointed.
- By Alan on 12-05-13
By: Chris Bohjalian
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The Guest Room
- A Novel
- By: Chris Bohjalian
- Narrated by: Mozhan Marnò, Grace Experience
- Length: 10 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
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When Kristin Chapman agrees to let her husband, Richard, host his brother's bachelor party, she expects a certain amount of debauchery. She brings their young daughter to Manhattan for the evening, leaving her Westchester home to the men and their hired entertainment. What she does not expect is this: bacchanalian drunkenness, her husband sharing a dangerously intimate moment in the guest room, and two women stabbing and killing their Russian bodyguards before driving off into the night.
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Blah, Blah, Blah
- By Julie on 01-07-16
By: Chris Bohjalian
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Water Witches
- By: Chris Bohjalian
- Narrated by: Kaleo Griffith, Kim Mai Guest
- Length: 10 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
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Patience Avery is a dowser—a "water witch". Her natural gifts enable her to locate lost items, missing people, and aquifers deep within the earth. This last skill is more in demand than ever, as her home state of Vermont is in the grip of the worst drought in years. Patience knows better than most that this crisis is only the start: a sign of worse things to come.
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decent listen
- By Taintedrose76 on 01-18-23
By: Chris Bohjalian
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The Jackal's Mistress
- A Novel
- By: Chris Bohjalian
- Narrated by: Marni Penning, Chris Bohjalian
- Length: 9 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
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Virginia, 1864—Libby Steadman’s husband has been away for so long that she can barely conjure his voice in her dreams. While she longs for him in the night, fearing him dead in a Union prison camp, her days are spent running a gristmill with her teenage niece, a hired hand, and his wife, all the grain they can produce requisitioned by the Confederate Army. It’s an uneasy life in the Shenandoah Valley, the territory frequently changing hands, control swinging back and forth like a pendulum between North and South, and Libby awakens every morning expecting to see her land a battlefield.
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Just ok
- By Gwen on 03-20-25
By: Chris Bohjalian
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The Double Bind
- A Novel
- By: Chris Bohjalian
- Narrated by: Susan Denaker
- Length: 11 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
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When college sophomore Laurel Estabrook is attacked while riding her bicycle, her life is changed forever. She withdraws into her photography hobby and begins to work at a homeless shelter. There she meets Bobbie Crocker, a man with a box of photographs he won't let anyone see. When Bobbie dies suddenly, Laurel discovers that he was once a successful photographer. As her fascination begins to merge into obsession, she becomes convinced that some of his photographs reveal a dark family secret.
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Excellent Psychological Thriller
- By Billie Lee on 02-19-07
By: Chris Bohjalian
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The Buffalo Soldier
- By: Chris Bohjalian
- Narrated by: Alison Fraser
- Length: 12 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
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From the best selling and critically acclaimed author of Trans-Sister Radio comes a hauntingly beautiful story of the ties that bind families - and the strains that pull them apart. "Bohjalian writes honestly and often movingly," says Publishers Weekly, and Library Journal calls it "tender...[written] with poetic skill."
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Touching, and Sincere
- By A.W. Nadine on 05-27-03
By: Chris Bohjalian
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Midwives
- A Novel
- By: Chris Bohjalian
- Narrated by: Kate Burton
- Length: 4 hrs and 36 mins
- Abridged
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The time is 1981, and Sibyl Danforth has been a dedicated midwife in the rural community of Reddington, Vermont, for 15 years. But one treacherous winter night, in a house isolated by icy roads and failed telephone lines, Sibyl takes desperate measures to save a baby's life. She performs an emergency Caesarean section on its mother, who appears to have died in labor.
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Why Abridged
- By Patricia B Tripoli on 11-06-13
By: Chris Bohjalian
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The Sandcastle Girls
- A Novel
- By: Chris Bohjalian
- Narrated by: Cassandra Campbell, Alison Fraser
- Length: 11 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
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When Elizabeth Endicott arrives in Syria, she has a diploma from Mount Holyoke College, a crash course in nursing, and only the most basic grasp of the Armenian language. The First World War is spreading across Europe, and she has volunteered on behalf of the Boston-based Friends of Armenia to deliver food and medical aid to refugees of the Armenian genocide. There, Elizabeth becomes friendly with Armen, a young Armenian engineer who has already lost his wife and infant daughter. When Armen leaves Aleppo to join the British Army in Egypt, he begins to write Elizabeth letters....
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Bohjalian is Better Than This...
- By Pamela Harvey on 08-12-12
By: Chris Bohjalian
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The Flight Attendant
- A Novel
- By: Chris Bohjalian
- Narrated by: Erin Spencer, Grace Experience, Mark Deakins
- Length: 11 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
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Cassandra Bowden is no stranger to hungover mornings. She's a binge drinker, her job with the airline making it easy to find adventure, and the occasional blackouts seem to be inevitable. She lives with them and the accompanying self-loathing. When she awakes in a Dubai hotel room, she tries to piece the previous night back together, counting the minutes until she has to catch her crew shuttle to the airport. She quietly slides out of bed, careful not to aggravate her already pounding head, and looks at the man she spent the night with.
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Good story but 1 reader got on my nerves
- By Bernadette on 04-15-18
By: Chris Bohjalian
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The Premonition
- A Short Story Prequel to The Sleepwalker
- By: Chris Bohjalian
- Narrated by: Cady McClain
- Length: 1 hr and 28 mins
- Unabridged
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Lianna Ahlberg is 17 when a thunderstorm snaps a power line to the earth, electrifying the ground, the rain spreading the current like wildfire across the wet grass. Two horses are killed in the nearby field, unnerving the neighbors, upsetting the peculiar boy who has just moved in, and filling Lianna with a deep and abiding sense of dread. This is not the first unusual thing to happen that summer - a summer when Lianna's mother begins to sleepwalk in the smallest hours of morning - and it will not be the last.
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Terrible narration....
- By kelly m. leach on 05-03-18
By: Chris Bohjalian
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The Princess of Las Vegas
- A Novel
- By: Chris Bohjalian
- Narrated by: Saskia Maarleveld, Grace Experience
- Length: 11 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
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Crissy Dowling has created a world that suits her perfectly. She passes her days by the pool in a private cabana, she splurges on ice cream but never gains an ounce, and each evening she transforms into a Princess, performing her musical cabaret inspired by the life of the late Diana Spencer. Some might find her strange or even delusional, an American speaking with a British accent, hair feathered into a style thirty years old, living and working in a casino that has become a dated trash heap.
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Cheap movie ticket
- By april on 03-25-24
By: Chris Bohjalian
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.
Kept my attention
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Big surprises come in small packages.
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Loved this book!
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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.Kept my interest
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uninspired and unconvincing. I usually enjoy this author’s work, but this had little to offer.
disappointing
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Would you recommend this book to a friend? Why or why not?
Not to someone from Vermont because the narrator mispronounces both Albany and Barre VT and it is so jarring to someone who knows the true pronunciation. It takes you out of the story because the narrators are suppose to live in this area and to garble the names of the towns destroys any credibility.What was your reaction to the ending? (No spoilers please!)
It was what I expected and true to form for the book.Who would you have cast as narrator instead of the narrators?
Anyone who came from new England and knows that Barre, VT is pronounced "Barry", not "Bar" and Albany, NY is pronounced "Awlbany" not "Al - bany". Its nice when the narrators have a flavor for the local language and it is clear that this narrator did not.Could you see Secrets of Eden being made into a movie or a TV series? Who should the stars be?
NopeAny additional comments?
Pretty predictable with characters that are hard to like or know.Not a bad story except for the mispronunciations!
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What did you like best about Secrets of Eden? What did you like least?
It was quite effective to have (4) narrators relating the story from varying perspectives. Several timely topics were incorporated into the story (spousal abuse, faith/loss of faith ). Well written. But the ending was out of sync with the prior narrative. I felt cheated.Good story, but implausible ending
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Was taken surprise at the ending but was very satisfied. I enjoyed the book so much that I am now eager to listen to more.
An incredible read!
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Great Book
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Not as good as I had hoped.
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