Eden by Mark Brandi

Mark Brandi came to the notice of Australian crime readers with his debut Wimmera. That book won not only the Victorian Premier’s Unpublished Manuscript Award but also a debut dagger from the British Crime Writers’ Association and was shortlisted for a Ned Kelly Award in the same year. Wimmera was a dark tale of childhood friendship, loyalty and the consequences of sexual abuse. His fifth novel, Eden, Brandi returns to the world of Wimmera, although circuitously and while no knowledge of that original book is needed, it will deepen the experience and is well worth catching up with if it remains unread.

Tom Blackburn is fresh out of prison. Unwise to the ways of the modern world he quickly finds himself robbed and potentially living on the cold streets of Melbourne. A fellow resident at the hostel he managed to spend a night in suggests that if Tom needs a place to sleep he can doss down in a cemetery in the middle of Melbourne (the “Eden” of the title). Tom is quickly discovered but finds a little bit of compassion and lands an unofficial job helping dig graves and do some weeding. Tom has secrets that he is trying to keep from a nosey investigative journalist who had also covered his initial trial. But he also quickly finds that his new workmates are also keeping secrets that might be dangerous for him to uncover.

Eden is another riveting book from Brandi. The writing is descriptive but spare, clipped back to its basics. And reflected in the dialogue of people with secrets to keep. But it is also compassionate. Much like his second novel, The Rip, Brandi understands the plight of the dispossessed and the homeless, of those seeking to make it from one day to the next and how that makes them not only resilient but also vulnerable to exploitation. After his last two novels (The Others and Southern Aurora) came from a child’s perspective, it is also refreshing to find Brandi back in a very adult register.

Eden is a great companion piece to Wimmera. Brandi takes some aspects of that original book as background but uses that scaffold to tell a very different, but equally riveting dark tale that almost begs be consumed in a single sitting.

Eden by Mark Brandi

9

9.0/10