Another Kind of Eden, James Lee Burke
Another Kind of Eden, James Lee Burke
14 Rating(s)
List: $23.99 | Sale: $16.79
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Another Kind of Eden

Author: James Lee Burke

Narrator: Will Patton

Unabridged: 6 hr 19 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 08/17/2021


Synopsis

New York Times bestselling author James Lee Burke brings readers a captivating tale of justice, love, brutality, and mysticism set in the turbulent 1960s.

The American West in the early 1960s appears to be a pastoral paradise: golden wheat fields, mist-filled canyons, frolicking animals. Aspiring novelist Aaron Holland Broussard has observed it from the open door of a boxcar, riding the rails for both inspiration and odd jobs.

Jumping off in Denver, he finds work on a farm and meets Joanne McDuffy, an articulate and fierce college student and gifted painter. Their soul connection is immediate, but their romance is complicated by Joanne’s involvement with a shady professor who is mixed up with a drug-addled cult. When a sinister businessman and his son who wield their influence through vicious cruelty set their sights on Aaron, drawing him into an investigation of grotesque murders, it is clear that this idyllic landscape harbors tremendous power—and evil. Followed by a mysterious shrouded figure who might not be human, Aaron will have to face down all these foes to save the life of the woman he loves and his own.

The latest installment in James Lee Burke’s masterful Holland family saga, Another Kind of Eden is both riveting and one of Burke’s most ambitious works to date. It dismantles the myths of both the twentieth-century American West and the peace-and-love decade, excavating the beauty and idealism of the era to show the menace and chaos that lay simmering just beneath the surface.

About James Lee Burke

American mystery author, James Lee Burke, was born in Houston, Texas, explaining why most of the lead characters in his novels are Texan. He has won two Edgar awards, which is a very rare experience, and is a bestselling author of two short story collections and over thirty novels. Burke is best known for his Dave Robicheaux series. His Edgar Awards were for Black Cherry and Cimarron Rose. Two of his series were made into screen plays with each movie having a-list actors playing the Robicheaux character (Alec Baldwin - Heaven's Prisoners, and Tommy Lee Jones- In the Electric Mist).

A writer must usually hold down other employment while they attempt to gain a degree of following readers. Burke's various jobs included.......truck driver, newspaper reporter, social worker, land surveyor, unemployment system employee, Job Corps worker, teacher, and finally, novelist.

Burke lives in Montana with his wife, Pearl, two daughters, and four grandchildren. His favorite advice was given by Irving Stone, when Burke was nineteen.......... "Never write a story to pay your gas bill......if you do, be assured your utilities will be turned off".


Reviews

Goodreads review by Andrew on March 27, 2025

In a novel full of power and intensity, we are introduced to Aaron Holland Broussard an aspiring writer who is exploring the American West by hopping on freight trains. It’s the early 1960s and he’s currently working on a farm in Colorado. Aaron is a troubled man, plagued by nightmares, prone to non......more

Goodreads review by Susanne on March 01, 2021

Published on blog: [URL not allowed] It’s a Showdown of Good v Evil and it’s Dark, Lyrical, and Hard-Fought! I’ve always wanted to read James Lee Burke’s novel and with “Another Kind of Eden,” I got the chance to do exactly that and I took it! A slow burner from the start, it’s......more

Goodreads review by Barbara on June 13, 2024

3.5 stars Twenty-six-year old Aaron Holland Broussard grew up in Texas, fought in the Korean war, studied journalism at the University of Missouri, and wrote a novel that he's submitted to publishers. Aaron is now riding the rails out West, absorbing experiences for his next book. The story opens in......more

Goodreads review by Jenny on June 03, 2021

Aspiring novelist Aaron Holland Broussard rides the rails in 1960 America searching for inspiration and odd jobs. His latest stop in Trinidad, Colorado leads to a job on a local farm and an entree into the local community. And what a community it is: the Sheriff is obsessed with a supposed serial ki......more


Quotes

"Fans of James Lee Burke and narrator Will Patton won't be disappointed in this latest chapter of the Holland family saga. Patton sets the tone with a dry, almost husky, telling of a story focused on the 1960s and the American West. His delivery of Burke's novel reminds listeners of why Patton runs the risk of being better known as a narrator than an actor. His measured speech is pitch-perfect for this story of what a man will do for the woman he loves, a mysterious figure who may or may not be of this world, and the hope offered by the 1960s."