Fredriksson, Marianne "The Book of Eve"

Fredriksson, Marianne "The Book of Eve" (Swedish: Evas bok) (Paradisets barn / The Children of Paradise #1) - 1980

After reading "Hanna's Daughters" and "Simon and the Oaks" by my name sister Marianne Fredriksson, I was happy to tackle another one of her books. This one is slightly different, although it only looks like this at first glance.

Eve - we all know Eve, you know, the wife of Adam, mother of Cain and Abel. Yes, THAT Eve! From Paradise. But we only know that she gave the forbidden fruit to Adam and is guilty of all the hardships we women have to bear. Otherwise, the bible is not very explicit about her life, neither before nor after being expelled from paradise.

This novel tells us what happens to Adam and Eve after they leave the Garden of Eden, how they lead their life, how they cope with the death of their son. Eve goes back to paradise where she meets the people she left. It's especially interesting after having read "Sapiens" and "The Good Book of Human Nature" where they compare the bible with the evolution.

So, Eve returns to her people who are hunters and gatherers whereas Adam and his family has started to become settlers and farmers. She also learns how to use plants for curing illnesses.
Quite an interesting story that tells us how our ancestors might have lived. I shall try to read the next two books in this "Children of Paradise" trilogy, "The Book of Cain" and "The Saga of Norea".

A thoroughly enjoyable read.

From the back cover:

"A fictional version of the biblical scenario of Adam and Eve, in which Eve leaves the family shortly after their son Cain murders his brother Abel. She travels out in the world in search of their origin and of knowledge about their existence.

This is the first published novel by Marianne Fredriksson and the first book in her trilogy 'The Children of Paradise'. It was later published in a collection volume with the same name, together with 'The Book of Cain' (book two) and 'The Saga of Norea' (book three)."