A Garden of Demons: A Novel - Hardcover

Hower, Edward

3.6

5 ratings by Goodreads

9780865381063: A Garden of Demons: A Novel

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0865381062 ISBN 13: 9780865381063

Publisher: Ontario Review Pr, 2003

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Through the centuries and across the world the Virgin Mary has apparently appeared to ordinary people of every race and culture, from scholars to illiterates, the devout to the unbelieving, from young children to the dying. In this book the author chronicles authenticated Marian apparitions and messages. Information is drawn from scripture, legend, eyewitness accounts and interviews with other visionaries. The book ranges from Elijah's vision of Mary 800 years before her birth and reputed appearances in ancient China, to the children of Medjugorie in Bosnia, whose encounters with her began in 1981 and continue to the present day. The book also asks if, as the millennium draws near, shadowed by war and disease, are Mary's frequent appearances a signal to the faithful?

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About the Author:

Edward Hower is the author of five previous novels, most recently Shadows and Elephants. He lives in Ithaca, New York, and teaches at Cornell and Ithaca College.

From Publishers Weekly:

A Sri Lankan Christian family's small nature sanctuary becomes a potential hideout for Tamil Tiger terrorists in Hower's sixth novel (after Shadows and Elephants). Eleven-year-old Lila Gunsekera is the daughter of a Sri Lankan father and American mother; their quiet sanctuary and animal preserve has been the center of Lila's sheltered existence. The family's peace is broken, however, when Lila's father, Derek, who runs the sanctuary, receives a stink bomb in the mail from the Tamil Tigers, who have been targeting the country's weak, fragmented government for two decades. It slowly becomes clear that Derek is somehow tied up in the country's political machinations. The government declares the sanctuary a national landmark and offers its protection, but the stamp of approval proves all too temporary when the Tamil rebels march south toward the compound. Hower gracefully captures Lily's precocious but innocent perspective; she comes to understand the contentious relations between Tamil and Sinhalese residents of her small town and gains a more mature sense of her place in the world as her family is riven by politics. Hower whimsically dwells on Lila's relationship with her cat, which itself becomes a victim of sectarian violence as well as a symbol of the Tamils' struggle. The climactic final third of the book, crowded with political intrigue, is a jarring contrast to the quiet tale of Lila's inner life that dominates the earlier part of the novel, and feels somewhat rushed, but Hower's affecting take on lost innocence makes up for the problems of pacing.
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