Fallen - by David Maine (Paperback)

About the Book

Book Synopsis

From the internationally acclaimed author of The Preservationist comes a provocative retelling of the story of Adam and Eve, Cain and Abel: a novel that gives new meaning to the words "temptation," "rivalry," and "murder."

Their expulsion from the Garden is only the beginning: Eve and Adam have to find their way past recriminations and bitterness, to construct a new life together in a harsh land. But the challenges are many for the world's first family. Among their children are Cain and Abel, and soon they must discover how to be parents to one son who is everything they could hope for, and another who is sullen, difficult, and rife with insecurities and jealousies. In the background, always, is the incomprehensibility of God's motives as He watches over their faltering attempts to build a life. In Fallen, David Maine has drawn a convincing, wryly observant, and enthralling portrait of a family--one driven (and riven) by passions, irrationality, and love. The result is an intimate, in-depth story of brothers, a husband, and a wife--people whose struggles are both completely familiar and yet utterly original.

Review Quotes

"David Maine's Fallen builds suspensefully toward what is arguably the best-known episode in the story of mankind: the banishment of Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden . . . this book's power to rivet the reader approaches the miraculous." --New York Times

"A work of both high seriousness and wicked laughs." --Entertainment Weekly

"Artful and challenging . . . the topic is fascinating and Maine's writing is suffused with an economical beauty." --The Tampa Tribune

"Maine is enormously talented at extrapolating rich characters from a few brief verses." --The Washington Post

About the Author

David Maine was born in 1963 and grew up in Farmington, Connecticut. He attended Oberlin College and the University of Arizona, and has worked in the mental health systems of Massachusetts and Arizona. He has taught English in Morocco and Pakistan, and since 1998 has lived in Lahore, Pakistan, with his wife, novelist Uzma Aslam Khan.