Jim Crace

The gardeners of Eden are called by their masters, the angels, to see a dead body. It is that of a bird, a creature who has strayed beyond the garden walls. The garden's inhabitants live an eternal and unblemished life, but outside, where there is poverty and sickness and death, this bird has met a fate that is beyond their imagining. And why would anyone want to leave? Eden is a place of immortality and plenty - bountiful fields and orchards and...