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Rosey Lee, author of "Gardins of Edin." Facebook Twitter WhatsApp SMS Email Print Copy article link Save The Gardins of Edin, By Rosey Lee, Waterbrook, 320 pages “How have I lasted in this family for so long?” Ruth wonders aloud as she prepares to go to meet her mother-in-law Naomi at her home on their shared family estate. She’s been trying her best to run the family company while grieving her husband, Beau, but her family is not making it easy.
Naomi’s niece, Martha, doesn’t trust Ruth. Her other niece, Mary, is trying to start a healthy comfort food restaurant but keeps getting dragged into the family drama. Naomi has kept the peace between all of them for years, but when she starts prioritizing herself, more chaos ensues.
"The Gardins of Edin" reimagines Bible characters as a contemporary Black family in the South. In Rosey Lee’s heartwarming debut novel, “The Gardins of Edin,” she reimagines Bible characters: two from the Old Testament (Ruth and Naomi) and two from the New Testament (Mary and Martha) as part of one Black family who lives in contemporary Georgia in a city called Edin. The family business was built by the Gardins’ formerly enslaved ancestors.
For those familiar with the Bible, reading “The Gardins of Edin” is like catching up with an old friend after many years away: things have changed but there’s something deeply familiar about them. Careful readers will notice nods to other biblical stories: Mary comes back after losing her inheritance, she’s thought to have spent it irresponsibly like the prodigal son. The title “Gardins of Edin” calls back to the garden paradise created by God and lost by humanity in the first chapters of the Bible.
But in Lee’s imagining, the characters take on a life of their own; it’s not strictly biblically accurate, and it’s not trying to be. That’s why Ruth’s husband is named Beau not Boaz. Mary has an ex-but-it’s-kinda-complicated fiancé.
The book can be enjoyed by people unfamiliar with the Bible or these particular figures within it, and the story doesn’t feel preachy or overly stuck to its inspiration. The family is running a multimillion-dollar peanut business in the South, and the town of Edin benefits from Lee’s background growing up in the South on the West Bank of New Orleans and now living in Georgia. There’s a richness to an imagined town built by people who were formerly enslaved but allowed to thrive that feels ripe for a complicated story like this.
Characters go to therapy. Everyone has secrets. Ruth might be wondering how she’s survived so long, but readers might wonder if the family can even stay together.
In the author’s bio, it states that Lee writes “stories about complicated families and complex friendships, but a happy ending is guaranteed.” This kind of story scratches the same itch that romance novels do: there’s drama but you know that love triumphs in the end. There’s a comfortable safety in that.
It’s not about the ending, it’s about the journey. The novel is a love letter to families who are trying their best despite everything that divides them — and a bit of escapism for people who need to get away from the news for a while. “The Gardins of Edin” is a hopeful book but not pollyannaish in its delivery.
The characters are flawed in a realistic and relatable way. Mary and Martha don’t always say what they mean, and when they try, it sometimes goes disastrously. Lee deftly reckons with hard issues like grief and mental health through the specificities of one family’s problems.
In an age of divisiveness and bad news, it’s a book where a family finds their way back to each other. A dazzling debut — readers will be anxiously awaiting the sequel..
