Edge of Eden

Edge of Eden by Helen Benedict cast a spell over me with it’s oppressive edginess. This is the story of the disintegration of a family over the course of a year spent in paradise on the Seychelles. It is also a vivid account of the dark side of Eden and the negative effect of colonialism. It appears to be a book that gets very mixed reviews, many hated it, some loved it. I come down on the love side.

This is a family that was in trouble long before they reached the shores of the Seychelles, but things have a habit of developing quickly in the tropics. As she sees her family falling apart, the eight year old elder daughter, Zara turns to island magic called “grigri” to try and cure what she sees as the problem. Both horrifying and show more funny, I haven’t read a book that delves so interestingly into the dark side of a child’s mind in a long time. Zara is definitely a very scary little girl but eventually you start to see various sides to her and she is easily the most engaging character in the story.

This is far from a perfect book, at times it was rather messy with too many storylines, some confusing resolutions and many characters that verged on being stereotypes, such as the lecherous governor, the drunken clique of British wives, the voluptuous native girls. Still, I enjoyed the read, learned a bit of about the native flora and fauna and overall still find Helen Benedict an author that I am very interested in. show less