Synopses & Reviews
Synopsis
Back to the Garden is a memoir-like novel set on a remote island off the coast of British Columbia. Ryan and Sheila flee the US and the Vietnam war in an attempt to start a new life. On Vasquez Island, they find others like themselves who are trying to begin a new world in its abandoned homesteads. Members of their back-to-the land community watch as family after family, person after person, is drawn into the depersonalized life of a mysterious commune. They wonder what is the power that the commune has to take people away from their homes and lives. When Ryan, the main character, goes to confront the leader of the commune, it awakens an inner conflict about the meaning of his own life. Based on a true story, Back to the Garden chronicles the rise and fall of a spiritual commune and its conflict with the community around it. In its exploration of the Edenic quest it explores the relationship between nature and human nature, between individual and collective identity, between enlightenment and spiritual abuse. Back to the Garden is a dramatic portrayal of the joys and sorrows of searching for meaning on a road less travelled.