One boy thrives nurtured by the love of all those around him the other grows up in loneliness enveloped by a mysterious darkness.įirst published in 1952, East of Eden is the work in which Steinbeck created his most mesmerizing characters and explored his most enduring themes: the mystery of identity, the inexplicability of love, and the murderous consequences of love's absence. But the birth of his twins, Cal and Aaron, brings his wife to the brink of madness, and Adam is left alone to raise his boys to manhood. Set in the rich farmland of California’s Salinas Valley, this sprawling and often brutal novel follows the intertwined destinies of two families-the Trasks and the Hamiltons-whose generations helplessly reenact the fall of Adam and Eve and the poisonous rivalry of Cain and Abel.Īdam Trask came to California from the East to farm and raise his family on the new rich land. In his journal, Nobel Prize winner John Steinbeck called East of Eden “the first book,” and indeed it has the primordial power and simplicity of myth. That knowledge is set to destroy the Trask world.įirst broadcast: Sunday 3rd Jan 2016, 15:00 on BBC Radio 4 FM In order to protect the twins, Adam has always maintained that their mother is dead, but Cal, after listening in at a door, now knows the truth. His estranged wife -the enigmatic Cathy - has taken over a brothel after murdering its previous owner. Adam Trask has been raising his twin boys with the help of his cook, Lee.
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