Eden

Mark Brandi has always been a writer of great male characters, from Ben and Fab in his standout debut WIMMERA, to Jimmy in SOUTHERN AURORA, Anton and Steve in THE RIP and Jacob in THE OTHERS, they are very real people. He's also not afraid to portray these boys and men as sometimes victims, sometimes perpetrators, struggling, living difficult lives from difficult circumstances, often as a result of societal expectations and failures. As it is now for Tom in EDEN.

Recently released from jail after a long stint for a crime that is eventually revealed, he's lost and drifting, without family, and the only thing he really wants, to repair the fractured relationship with his girlfriend, complicated by the theft of the cash he'd saved while in jail, and her moving on in Queensland. Stuck in Melbourne, after one night only with a roof over his head, he's on the streets and looking at the distinct possibility of going straight back to jail, when a chance encounter suggests a good place to doss down is the cemetery off to the edge of the city. He's safe there, hidden away in a rotunda far inside the locked cemetery grounds, or so he thinks, until the next morning when he's awoken by head gravedigger Cyril, with friendship and a surprising offer. Tom soon finds himself a paid employee, living in the gravedigger's shed, seemingly on his way to that trip to Queensland and reconciliation, only there's always something, and it turns out that a spidery sense, the words and an avenue that might have helped him stay out of jail in the first place, don't quite work out the same way this time around.

There are hints, and clues along the way for the astute reader, as the details of Tom's past are revealed, along with the story of what's really going on in the cemetery. But it's the arrival of a journalist on the scene, a man who reported on Tom's original trial that blows everything up and puts Tom in a really tricky position. The dilemma for Tom is to talk about the past to a man hell-bent on publishing his story and outing the truth, or talk about the present, and put himself in real danger. All whilst absolutely, utterly and totally on his own.  

The strength's of Brandi's previous characterisations - that depiction of perpetrator and victim, men and boys in extreme circumstances, coalesce once again in EDEN. There are a lot of flawed people around Tom and there's obviously something about a lone individual, recently released from a very long stint in jail, that puts them in a particularly vulnerable position. And then there are the sorts of men who sense vulnerability and exploit it. In the past and now again in the present. The reader can't help but be left fervently hoping that something changes in the future.