Eden Mine

Eden Mine by S. M. Hulse is a very highly recommended novel that examines the aftershocks of an act of domestic terrorism in a small Montana town. This eloquently written, artistic novel is one of the best novels I've read so far this year.

It is a Sunday morning and Josephine (Jo) Faber is packing up the home that she and her brother Samuel inherited near Eden Mine in Montana. Their home has been seized by the state through eminent domain. While packing she learns about the bombing of the district courthouse at Elk Fork on the radio, but it is not until friend and unofficial guardian Sheriff Hawkins shows up at her front door that she realizes something is wrong. Hawkins wants to know where her brother, Samuel, is. As far as she knows, show more he left that morning to go find work.

When Jo is told that Samuel was caught on a security camera near the court house, she knows he is likely responsible. The tragedy is that a church was meeting in a nearby store front and the bomb blast blew out the window. Now a nine-year-old girl, the daughter of the pastor, is in critical condition. Jo knows that Samuel would never have meant for anyone to be placed in harm's way because of their family history. He has been taking care of Jo since he was 17 and she was 10.

Eden Mine is a finely crafted, nuanced, and beautifully written heart-breaking novel about family bonds, loyalty, love, individual freedom, injustice, the testing of faith, and redemption. It also touches on the anger, injustice, and disaffection tearing apart many communities. The novel is told mainly through Jo's point-of-view, with short chapters from Asa Truth, the pastor whose daughter is hospitalized, and Samuel, who is in hiding and writing to Jo on a map he has with him. The complete backstory slowly unfolds over the course of the novel, making what happened more nuanced and complicated that it would appear to be at first.

All of the characters are well-developed, complicated individuals. Hulse captures these damaged people and their thoughts, feelings, and struggles with an acumen and sensitivity that makes the story richer. The inner thoughts of the characters will resonate with readers. Some of the questions that Eden Mine raises are those that are struggled with almost universally. A case could be made that the novel is allegorical and reflects human struggles Biblically. In the end this is an eloquently written, touching novel that will stay with me for years.
Disclosure: My review copy was courtesy of Farrar, Straus and Giroux.
http://www.shetreadssoftly.com/2020/02/eden-mine.html
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I was a big fan of S. M. Hulse's debut novel Black River and have been eagerly awaiting Eden Mine. Hulse has a magic pen that creates a vivid sense of place and complex, conflicted characters embroiled in devastating moral choices.

Tall Montana mountains on the east side castes their shadows on the valley until near noon. The silver mines left their legacy of polluted water and broken families. Jo and Samuel Faber's grandfather worked the mines for thirty years to afford a plot of land at retirement. Their father died in a mine collapse.

Eden on one side, Gethsemane on the other, the mountains define Jo's world, a paradise she loves, haunted by ghastly memories of her mother's brutal murder. Her brother Samuel had hoped to leave this show more dying town. Instead, he became Jo's protector, her guardian. For when the disgruntled lover murdered their mother, a bullet also struck Jo.

The orphaned siblings lost too much, including their faith, but they had each other. Samuel, Jo knew, would always protect her. Jo enjoyed "casting the world in its best light" in her paintings that she sold at the gas station gift shop, and she also saw her brother in his best light, ignoring his darker attractions and anger.

The first sentence in the novel sets the conflict: "My brother's bomb explodes at 10:16 on a late April Sunday morning." Unable to fight the takeover of their family land through eminent domain, Samuel acts out. He never planned for anyone to be hurt--that's why he bombed the courthouse on a Sunday morning.

Samuel did not know that a church met in a storefront across the street. People were hurt, including the pastor's daughter.

Sheriff Hawkins comes to Jo. He has protected the siblings since their mother's death. He knows Jo could help the law find her brother. He knows the truth of that awful day when their mother's murderer was beaten to death.

Alone to face the looming deadline to vacate their family home, besieged by law and paparazzi, Jo finds aid from an unexpected person: Pastor Asa whose daughter lays in the hospital, a victim of Samuel's bomb. He is adrift spiritually, his faith unable to explain or cure what has happened.

Samuel agonizes over how he came to come to this point. His biggest choice is yet to come. Can he change?

Jo loves her brother. How long can she remain silent about what she knows?

Pastor Asa rails at his impotence to heal what is broken, the wife who died young, his comatose daughter. He is in the desert, hoping to find the still waters of faith again.

Hulse has again offered a novel that satisfies on so many levels: the propulsive plot, characters who are sympathetic and conflicted and real, a landscape painted in detailed richness, and the universal and timeless theme of being lost and seeking forgiveness and faith.

I was given a free book by the publisher in exchange for a fair and unbiased review. show less

The author shines light into darkness the way her protagonist paints. Eden Mine, whose title has layers of meaning, portrays some heavy, tough subjects without depressing the reader. Beauty and hope shine through despite the ugliness of what humans do.

This is a perhaps unintentionally timely exploration of the consequences of right wing conspiracy theories. But it could have been written 30 years ago and would be worth reading decades from now; the relationships and setting express enduring realities.

Unfortunately I had placed my expectations too high on this book as I loved her first book, [Black River]. Eden Mine is again set in Montana, but in this case the story revolves around Jo and Samuel, a brother and sister whose lives have been difficult. Jo is paralyzed from the bullet that was one of the many that killed her mother, her father died in a mining accident when she was young. All she had in the way of family was her older bother Samuel, and he did his best to raise her in safety.

But Samuel has always had radical ideas and now they are facing a deadline for the government has claimed their house in order to put a new road through. This new road which will by-pass their town could also be the kiss of death for their small show more town as well. Samuel takes it upon himself to set a bomb off near the courthouse in the nearby town of Elk Fork. Samuel chose to do this on a Sunday when the courthouse would be closed and few people would be about. He didn’t know of the new storefront church directly across from the courthouse. A little girl, the daughter of the preacher was struck by flying glass and there wasn’t a lot of hope for her to recover.

With the FBI and local law enforcement knocking on her door and the road in from of he house swarmed with reporters, Jo tries to live her life. At first she denies that her brother could be responsible but she eventually comes to accept that Samuel did set the bomb. She is assisted in her day to day responsibilities by the local sheriff, Cody Hawkins and the father of the little girl, Pastor Asa Truth.

The book is an insightful and moving story that exposes the most private of emotions. Although this was a very good book, I just couldn’t forget how moved I was by her previous book. Although the author did an excellent job of exposing the aftershocks of an act of domestic terrorism, I wasn’t quite pulled into the story as much as I wished to be. This story unfolds slowly, building up to the final confrontation that I was expecting. I will certainly continue to follow this author and I look forward to her next book. show less

A dying town in Montana, a town that was once a bustling place. That is before the mines closed. No and Sam's family had lived on their property for generations and planned to stay. That is, until the government seizes their property, using eminent domain for a planned highway. Jo and Sam had already had more than their share of tragedies, the last left Jo paralyzed from the waist down. Now an act of domestic terrorism will change what she holds most dear, an act that will have the pastor questioning his own faith.

a quiet book, but one with deep meaning. A tragedy but told in a gentle tone, using a formidable Jo, as narrator. As she questions, wonders, she paints, using elements of the land in her paintings. The preacher, against all show more odds becomes her confidant, and together they question faith and fate.

Us against them. Does one act, with unforseen consequences determine ones character? There is plenty of love here, in thought, action and deed. A book that would be excellent for book clubs, many points to debate. A melancholy tone, but one with some hope as well. A novel that definitely makes one think. show less

An excellent book, well-written and gripping that weaves together several plot lines that come together believably for a tense climax.The main character is a brave woman who wrestles with several moral and practical issues that have you rooting for her all the way.