Out of Eden
Pregnant, abandoned and homeless, Maureen battles to survive a Swedish winter until help arrives in the form of a mysterious woman with a veiled past. With the prospect of being deported, Maureen learns who her real friends are, especially when she faces investigations due to her links to a suspected criminal.
Meanwhile in Australia, Maureen’s family is scrambling to support her when the health of her unscrupulous father declines and he depends on the clever intervention of his estranged family members to salvage both his dignity and finances.
In this engaging, rollicking yet poignant sequel to Lillian’s Eden, we see Maureen’s ambition to explore the world encounter its harsh realities, and her mother Lillian using her resourcefulness and intelligence to tackle the ongoing family dramas at home.
This is a novel about women in the world in the 1960s, both in Australia and abroad, and their resilience and capacity to manage their lives at a time when others want to take that independence and decision-making from them.
MAY 2021 | 9781925950267 | Paperback | 233 x 150 mm | 300 pages
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Endorsements
Out of Eden is an engaging story of a resilient mother and daughter who defy the conventions of their era. Cheryl Adam is a natural storyteller with a comic gift who succeeds in capturing the feel of the 1960s and its uneasy transition between the stifling conformity of postwar Australia and the move into the new freedoms of the 1970s. It also features that rare thing, a lively and unsentimental portrait of a truly good woman.
—Amanda Lohrey, author of The Labyrinth
Reviews
Cheryl Adam’s second novel Out of Eden is a sequel to her widely acclaimed first book Lillian’s Eden. Set more than a decade later, it details Lillian’s post-divorce life in the small rural community of Eden in the 1960s. And in two seamlessly entwined plots it also introduces Lillian’s daughter Maureen (the now grown up Bub pregnant and alone in Sweden).
Both women exhibit courage, resilience and resourcefulness in dealing with the lamentably unequal status of women in that era.
Adam, a skilful storyteller, has given us complex, fast paced scenarios, peopled with well-drawn, fascinating characters. Lillian and Maureen face hardship and the social conventions and harsh moral judgements of the times with dignified determination.
The women’s battles to establish their independence make Out of Eden a real page turner that will have readers cheering for them, and will awaken memories in many women who lived through those years .
— Kristin Henry, author
…Here is a good historical novel, a family saga, a coming of age story. There are so many storylines in different cultures, countries and social circles. They are all connected through Lillian herself, her children, her history. Written at the time of MeToo movement that's changing the world in the 21st century the book shows how different and challenging life was for an ordinary woman in the 50th and the 60th of the last century. Female heroines of this book are strong, independent and resilient. They have to survive life full of hardship, betrayals and uncertain future. But there is friendship, empathy, family love in life that gives them courage. Out of Eden is full of humor and hope, even if the story is full of drama. I can not wait for the 3rd book to tell me more and to meet my favorite characters again.
— GoodReads Review [link]
A great story of Maureen's life that spans from Eden (Australia) to Sweden and the people and situations that shape her life. I'd recommend this book and am looking forward to Cheryl's next one.
—Booktopia Reader
In the News
Author Cheryl Adam highlights Eden in trilogy. Read the article in The Eden Magnet.