Eden Close » (Bargain)

A novelist who combines sweepingly romantic plots with a keen understanding of the emotional complexities inherent in any relationship, Anita Shreve is a writer who understands the subtleties of the human mind, and heart.

Andrew, in his mid-thirties, returns to his hometown to attend his mother's funeral. Planning to remain only a few days, he is drawn into the tragic legacy of the beautiful girl next door, Eden Close. An adopted child, Eden has learned to avoid the mother who did not want her and to please the father who did. She also aimed to please Andrew and his friends, first by being one of the boys and later by seducing them. Then one hot night Andrew was awakened by gunshots and piercing screams from the next farm: Mr. Close had been killed and Eden, blinded. Now, seventeen years later, Andrew begins to uncover the grisly story -- to unravel the layers of thwarted love between the husband, wife, and tormented girl. And as the truth about Eden's past comes to light, so too does Andrew's strange and binding attachment to her reveal itself.

NY Times Book Review

Eden Close is...a novel of sensibility. Its insights are keen, its language measured and haunting.