Jon Day

Fleeing paradise: eden, by Jim Crace, reviewed

It’s a woman (again) who makes trouble in paradise when she defies its restrictions and escapes with two companions

Jim Crace. [Getty Images] 
issue 13 August 2022

Since announcing his retirement in 2013, Jim Crace has had more comebacks than Kanye West, something for which we should all be thankful. Craceland is a compelling place to visit, full of hazy yet broadly recognisable locations (Tudoresque England in the IMPAC award winning Harvest; a vaguely Mediterranean town in Melody) and spanning indeterminate times (the post-apocalyptic future in The Pesthouse; the end of the Stone Age in The Gift of Stones).

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