ABOUT THE BOOK

This is Eden? is a historical fiction about the life of Hattie and John Burley and their six strong-willed children in the early 20th century. As it begins they are living in a two story wooden structure in Chicago. John is a bit of a dreamer who works for a dairy but feels led to pastor a church. He sees his opportunity in the Chicago Tribune: The Soo Line Railroad advertises land he can afford in north/central Wisconsin. He packs up his family and all their worldly possessions and sends them off to begin settling the land without him.

Hattie is a strong, principled woman. She is resourceful, thrifty, and a devoted mother. She needs all her resources to survive the many difficulties she faces in the primitive wilds of Wisconsin in 1913.

This story shows how the love of land and the struggles to keep it forms in a person and grows in one’s heart.