Eden

How compelling are the books that explore trauma, the shattering events that divide a person's life into a Before and an After! More curious are the stories that take place in the After, the period of time when the survivor realizes their hell has borders and beyond that are people living their lives full of quotidian details, untouched by the suffering of others. Eden is just such a book, following Hope as she searches for her estranged sister, Eden. They are separated by years and physical distance, but bound by the childhood trauma they survived. It's a bleak story, but there's such beauty in the rawness of Hope's pain and loneliness. It hurt to read sometimes, the ways she holds herself apart from everyone around her, intentionally or not, but it made for a vivid reading experience. Andrea Kleine has written a memorable and moving book!  Recommended By Lauren P., Powells.com

A bold, page-turning novel that follows how a childhood abduction sets two sisters on very different courses

Every other weekend, Hope and Eden--backpacks, Walkmans, and homework in hand--wait for their father to pick them up, as he always does, at a strip-mall bus stop. It's the divorce shuffle; they're used to it. Only this weekend, he's screwed up, forgotten, and their world will irrevocably change when a stranger lures them into his truck with a false story and smile.

More than twenty years later, Hope is that classic New York failure: a playwright with only one play produced long ago, newly evicted from an illegal sublet, working a humiliating temp job. Eden has long distanced herself from her family, and no one seems to know where she is. When the man who abducted them is up for parole, the girls might be able to offer testimony to keep him jailed. Hope sets out to find her sister--and to find herself--and it becomes the journey of a lifetime, taking her from hippie communes to cities across the country. Suspenseful and moving, Eden asks: how much do our pasts define us, and what price do we pay if we break free?