The Devil's Garden

On an isolated river station at the last inhabited point in the jungle, Dr Forle and his band of international scientists are carrying out their work. Connected to the outside world only by satellite and email, they study the eerie forest glades that local tribes call 'devil's gardens', predicting that these poisoned places will help unlock an evolutionary puzzle. When an unannounced boat docks at their jetty and discharges a crew of soldiers, a colonel, and a sinister judge, their research is thrown into jeopardy. The intruders claim to be registering the indigenous peoples to vote. But that night, Forle witnesses an act of torture he can neither forgot nor ignore, and over the next days, as reality and nightmare become blurred among the trees, he is pushed to his absolute limits...'Shocking and satisfying. An unusually intelligent thriller' Metro 'Reminiscent of novels by JM Coetzee or Damon Galgut. This poisoned Eden throbs with intensity, and delivers a gut punch that leaves you reeling' Independent on Sunday

Edward Docx was born in 1972 and lives in London. His previous novels are The Calligrapher, and Self Help, which was longlisted for the Man Booker Prize 2007, and won the Geoffrey Faber Memorial Prize.