A few people think it still exists, but no one knows for sure.' Some people say there was a real garden, but it withered up and blew away. ' That all depends on whether you believe. ' Mom? Was there really a Garden of Eden ? Not a story, but an actual place?' Or maybe I will already be there, waiting where the grass is green and the trees are always in bloom, and the cherry tree petals blow along on the wind like the rain.' Father always remembers you, even when it seems like he’s forgotten.' ' But you know what? Someday even Father might find a magical garden.' He doesn’t even know enough to come inside for stories at night and that is very important, now isn’t it?' ' Is that what Father says? Well, I’ll tell you a secret, but you musn’t tell anyone else.' He says none of your stories are true, because if magic were real you wouldn’t be sick.'

There were tigers and rhinoceroses and brilliant white unicorns. ' Oh, more than I could name before bedtime. ' Were there trees? Like Father grows? Or just fruits and vegetables?' Other than the above, I enjoyed reading the book it kept my interest and I cared about the characters. Wow, I guess I'm more disappointed than I realized. I'm all for using fantasy to create a sense of distance that the reader can lessen to whatever degree feels safe, but I don't think the fantasy does that in this case. The point of all this is learning to live with the loss of a family member, which is perhaps better done realistically. Apparently there is also some sort of conservation of living things: the abundant life in this other world is at the expense of the dying orchard and barren land in this world.

There is a confusing mix of fantasy and reality: just as we start to believe that the story is not realistic, we discover that it may be and while we're absorbing this, suddenly there is a magical seed that produces a tree, which is a portal to another world. Yes, Adam and Eve are characters, magical seeds may be from the actual Garden of Eden, and a barrier between Gan Eden and world we live in is vital to our world's well-being, but I don't think the Biblical connections go much further.

The Garden of Eve by K.L. Going