Waiting for Eden: A novel

From the National Book Award-shortlisted author of Dark at the Crossing comes a powerful, taut novel of unsettling insight, tracing the intersection of three lives shattered by war.

Since Eden returned home from Iraq severely burned and in a coma, his wife Mary's life has unraveled. She spends her days camped out on the sofa in his hospital room, waiting for his inevitable death, while their daughter, Andy, is raised by her grandmother. But after Eden suffers a stroke on Christmas Day, his consciousness is rearranged, flickering alive. As he finds a way to communicate with Mary, a difficult truth about both their marriage and their trust in each other gradually comes to the surface. In the end, Mary is asked to make a decision about Eden's life, one he can't make for himself. A riveting, deeply felt meditation on sympathy and brutality, love and fear, loyalty and betrayal, Waiting for Eden is a tour de force.