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English Summary/英文概要： The lives of a middle-aged doctor and a love-struck young woman intersect across time in Sleeping in Eden, Nicole Baart’s haunting novel about love, jealousy, and the boundaries between loyalty and truth.
On a chilly morning in the Northwest Iowa town of Blackhawk, Dr. Lucas Hudson is filling in for the vacationing coroner on a seemingly open-and-shut suicide case. His own life is crumbling around him, but when he unearths the body of a woman buried in the barn floor beneath the hanging corpse, he realizes this terrible discovery could change everything. Lucas is almost certain the remains belong to Angela Sparks, the missing daughter of the man whose lifeless body dangles from a rope above. When Angela went missing years earlier, he and his wife never really believed she was just another teenage runaway. Fueled by passion, Lucas resolves to uncover the details of Angela’s suspected death, to bring some closure to their small community and to his wife. But his obsession may not be able to fix what is broken, and Lucas may be chasing shadows…
Years before Lucas ever set foot in Blackhawk, Meg Painter met Dylan Reid. It was the summer before high school and the two quickly became inseparable. Although Jess, Meg’s older neighbor, was the safe choice, she couldn’t let go of Dylan and the history they shared no matter how hard she tried. Caught in a web of jealousy and deceit that spiraled out of control, Meg’s choices in the past ultimately collide with Lucas’s investigation in the present, weaving together a taut story of unspoken secrets and the raw, complex passions of innocence lost.
Chinese Summary/中文概要： 一件尚未解開的歷史懸案，一段令人心碎的愛情故事，讓一場岌岌可危的破碎婚姻，有了重新開始的契機!
過去:
愛荷華州鄉間的一個保守小鎮，在畢業前的最後夏季，梅格和迪倫兩人初次相遇，就成為形影不離的好友。但梅格的鄰居朋友傑斯，也是對她情有獨鐘。放不下迪倫的梅格，必須在兩位男生的友誼之間做出抉擇。在三人夾雜在嫉妒和欺騙之間患得患失的感情世界，梅格最後的選擇，開始讓一切漸漸失控…
現在:
中年是夫妻關係最容易出現裂痕的時期，盧卡斯醫生和妻子之間不知何時起，兩人感情開始變得陌生。盧卡斯決定回到愛荷華州的小鎮，但他才回來此地不久，在寒冷的清晨就開始著手處理，被眾人判定是答案明顯的自殺案件，但只有他卻覺得背後動機與原因似乎並不單純。這一具在穀倉地板下挖掘出的一具女性身體，他下意識幾乎可以肯定這具是多年前小鎮上一位莫名失踪女孩安琪拉的遺骸。當年這位失踪的女孩，被判定是青少年逃家的一般家庭事件，但現在盧卡斯卻懷疑安琪拉可能是遭人殺害。如果能解開這個謎題似乎使他內心覺得能得到某種救贖的機會，而在這封閉的小鎮，盧卡斯急切熱心的分析，卻被認為一切只是他捕風捉影的推論…
過去與現在開始連接交會，原來以前在小鎮上失蹤的女孩就不只一位，這一樁看似多年未解的神秘案件，對於深陷其中卻彼此心照不宣，維持表面平靜的人，所有秘密開始一一浮上檯面…
Awards/获奖情况： “Sleeping in Eden mesmerized me from the first heart-stopping page. Nicole Baart draws her characters beautifully while crafting a plot that kept me up all night. A highly emotional and gripping read.”
(Anita Hughes, author of Monarch Beach )
"Nicole Baart writes like a dream, and she gives us a story that is part murder mystery, part sensitive exploration of our human connections: the ties between parent and child, husband and wife; the tug of the past; and the blurry, often baffling border between friendship and love."
(Marisa de los Santos, author of Belong to Me and Love Walked In )
《讓愛走進來》瑪麗莎•桑多
"Sleeping in Eden is intense and absorbing from the very first page. Written in lovely prose, two seemingly different storylines collide in a shocking conclusion."
(Heather Gudenkauf, New York Times bestselling author of The Weight of Silence and One Breath Away )
《被囚禁的音符》 海瑟．古登考夫
"Baart’s beautifully layered story of one man’s journey to repair his wounded marriage, and the unsolved crime that may be the key to its healing, takes readers on a gripping ride. At turns chillingly suspenseful and achingly tender, Sleeping in Eden is exactly the sort of novel every reader hopes to find when they crack the spine of a new book. Baart’s characters are richly drawn and utterly compelling; I was hooked from page one."
(Erika Marks, author of The Mermaid Collector and Little Gale Gumbo )
“Nicole Baart has written a novel that satisfies on every level. Sleeping in Eden is a compelling mystery, a tragic love story, a perceptive consideration of the callous whim of circumstance and, perhaps most important, a beautiful piece of prose. I guarantee this is a book that will haunt you long after you’ve turned the last page.”
(William Kent Krueger, New York Times bestselling author )
“Sleeping in Eden is bittersweet and moving, and it will haunt you from page one. Nicole Baart writes with such passion and heart.”
(Sarah Jio, New York Times bestselling author of Blackberry Winter and The Violets of March )
“Emotionally gripping and perfectly paced, Sleeping in Eden’s taut storyline and profound characterizations will keep you turning the page until the richly satisfying end.”
(Amy Hatvany, author of Outside the Lines and Heart Like Mine )
“Sleeping in Eden is a bittersweet and masterful story of love and longing and redemption. Nicole Baart has crafted an irresistible mystery, a page-turner of a novel with prose so rich, and characters so beautifully drawn, you’ll be absorbed from the very first sentence. I’m telling everyone I know to put Sleeping in Eden on their to-be-read list—you will not be disappointed!”
(Roberta Gately, author of Lipstick in Afghanistan and The Bracelet )
“Nicole Baart’s Sleeping in Eden is vivid storytelling with a temporal sweep. In Baart’s cleverly woven mystery, the characters’ intertwined fates prove that passions transcend time—and secrets will always be unearthed.”
(Jenna Blum, New York Times and internationally bestselling author )
《那些拯救我們的人》珍娜•布魯姆
“With lyrical prose and a narrative that kept me turning pages at a breakneck speed, Sleeping in Eden delivered everything I yearn for in a novel: evocative plot lines, well-drawn characters, and a heart-stopping conclusion.”
(Tracey Garvis Graves, author of the bestselling novel On the Island )
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