In Eden West, Pete Hautman plumbs the depths of faith and doubt through the eyes of 17-year-old narrator Jacob, who finds himself questioning the sanctity of his religious community.
Jacob, walking the perimeter of Nodd's 12 square miles of paradise, comes face to face with a worldly girl on the other side of the fence. She calls him "Cult Boy" and introduces herself as Lynna. Her laugh makes him think of "bells wrapped in velvet," and the thin fabric of her black T-shirt "does nothing to conceal the shape of her breasts." Suddenly, Jacob is dreaming of both Lynna and Sister Ruth, the young woman he always thought he would be with until Zerachiel comes to take the pure of heart onto the Ark.
Probing themes he explored in Godless, Hautman reveals the inner struggle of a young man as the scales begin to fall away from his eyes. Jacob strikes up a forbidden friendship with Lynna and begins to see Father Grace and his followers through her eyes. His view widens to include the world beyond Nodd's fences. When Tobias, a newcomer, arrives in Nodd, and again when Lynna, in crisis, seeks sanctuary there, Jacob shows the most compassion and realizes that Father Grace does not always practice what he preaches.
In this novel that cuts to the core of adolescence, Hautman walks the line between those of pure faith and those who stray, creating full-blooded characters who feel real and flawed. Jacob must sort out his own relationship with the God of his understanding--no one can teach him what that looks like. --Jennifer M. Brown, children's editor, Shelf Awareness