Paradise Lust: Searching for the Garden of Eden

Posted on December 5, 2017 by PLT Staff

Paradise Lust: Searching for the Garden of Eden

From the publisher:

Where was the Garden of Eden? St. Augustine had a theory, and so did medieval monks, John Calvin, and Christopher Columbus. But when Darwin’s theory of evolution permanently altered our understanding of human origins, shouldn’t the search for a literal Eden have faded away? Not so fast.

In Paradise Lust, widely acclaimed on its initial hardcover publication, Brook Wilensky-Lanford introduces readers to the enduring modern quest to locate the Garden of Eden on Earth. It is an obsession that has consumed scientists and theologians alike, including the first president of Boston University and a knighted British engineer. Today the search has been taken up by amateurs. These quixotic seekers all started with the same simple-sounding Bible verses, but ended up at a different spot on the globe: Florida, the North Pole, Ohio, China, and, of course, Iraq.

Inspired by an Eden seeker in her own family, Wilensky-Lanford writes of these unusual men and women with sympathy and wit. Paradise Lust is a century-spanning history that provokes surprising insights into where we came from, what we did wrong, and where we go from here.

  • Publication Information
  • Author: Brook Wilensky-Lanford
  • Publication Type: Book
  • Publisher:Grove Press
  • Date of Publication:August 2012
  • Purchase: Buy this publication »