Eden Found
By Steve Hart 

     Sleeper Middle Eastern immigrants to the United States take Americans hostage and blow up a building. Although Eden Found is set mainly in 1985, its events have great resonance post-9/11 and during the ongoing War on Terror, as well as the continued breakdown of negotiation between the Israelis and the Palestinians. The Israeli-Palestinian "roadmap to peace," in this intriguing, inventive adventure thriller, lies in 24 scrolls said to be the original words of Adam, the first man. Unfortunately, racial and religious conflicts prevent Israelis and Palestinians from even reading the message of love and brotherhood, and one man's greed, hate and lust interfere, another grim parallel with today's events and commentary on humanity.

     Hart mixes into the bubbling cauldron of the Middle East a down-on-his-luck reporter trying to redeem himself after an irresponsible story, his girlfriend and the heroic Reverend who lusts after her in his heart but stays true to his integrity and his faith, an intrepid archaeologist couple interested in exploring the swinging life, a Perry White-type editor (whose first name is Perry), and a Palestinian terrorist leader handpicked by Yasser Arafat and prone to say, like the Israelis he's fighting, "Better you should do this…" Also included are marvelous discussions on Islam vs. other religions, commentary on how Americans appear to the Arabs…and the twist that Adam and Eve may have come from another planet to better the lives of the native peoples of Earth. One could speculate that the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians may have started because they misinterpreted the acts of Adam and Eve's descendants in the Second Garden of Eden, the Holy Land.

      The invention of the scrolls (12,000 B.C.) and the plausibility of Angkor Wat, the Sphinx and the Pyramids at Giza all being monuments built at the same time (10,500 B.C.) to honor Adam and Eve's arrival are beside the point, much as, in many respects, the historical fact of religious texts are to believers. The message of the scrolls revealed in a vision, "Humanity is one big family," is more important in this book, and so is the intelligent thrill-ride.