Inspired by her parents' anthropological field notes, Helen Benedict has set her fifth novel in 1960, on the tropical Seychelles Islands, a thousand miles off the eastern coast of Africa. Benedict's lush descriptions of life on the islands are firmly based in the realities of the time. The role of black magic in Seychelles culture, passed down from the country's past as a former slave colony, the decaying culture of British colonialism's last gasp -- these form the background of this witty, sharp and yet heartbreaking novel about a family unraveling and a child's desperate attempts to save it.

Praise for The Edge of Eden:
"An armchair traveler's delight, Benedict's novel is an amusingly poignant look at the British abroad in the spirit of Evelyn Waugh." (Publishers Weekly, Sept. 2009)

"Benedict offers an engaging, lush portrait of envy, desire, and the insatiable lure of the exotic and unknown." (Booklist, Oct. 2009)

"Benedict... offers distinctive cross-cultural insights as well as a cadre of satiric and fascinating characters, and the result is a story that is both touching and humorous. Highly recommended." (Library Journal, Nov. 1, 2009)

"Not since Lord of the Flies has a novelist written with such preceptiveness about the potention for harm that lurks within the innocence of childhood... That Benedict could accomplish this in an ambitious novel about colonialism and the effects of war makes this feat all the more dazzling. Her portrait of the generation of British parents that came of age during World war II is smart, original and unflinching." (Paula Sharp, author of Crows over a Wheatfield)

For a Washington Post article about Seychelles and global warming, go to: www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/11/20/AR2009112002973.html

For a new Radio Blog interview of Benedict about The Edge of Eden, go to
www.blogtalkradio.com/ColumbiaJournalism/2009/11/03/Helen-Benedict

For a new profile of Benedict, go to www.chronogram.com/issue/2009/10/Books/North-of-Eden

READ MORE ABOUT BENEDICT'S FORTHCOMING NOVEL, THE EDGE OF EDEN, SET IN SEYCHELLES IN 1960. Soho Press, November, 2009. www.sohopress.com/new-books/the-edge-of-eden

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The Lonely Soldier: The Private War of Women Serving in Iraq
Beacon Press, April 2009 (paperback April 2010)

More women soldiers are fighting in Iraq than in any other American war in history, yet they face a dual challenge: they are participating in combat more than ever before, but because only one in ten soldiers is female, they are often painfully alone. This isolation, along with a military culture hostile to women, denies them the camaraderie soldiers depend on for survival and subjects them to sexual persecution by their comrades. As one soldier said, "I ended up waging my own war against an enemy dressed in the same uniform as mine."

Praise for The Lonely Soldier:

"Benedict’s brilliant reporting is neither left nor right—it’s human. . . . [These women] are your mother, sister, cousin, daughter. Their stories of injustice in the U.S. military will tear your guts out."
—Dale Maharidge, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of And Their Children After Them