(from front/back flap)
Sometimes an act that takes but moments to accomplish can change destinies forever.
Garden
of Lies
is the unforgettable story of one such act, and of the lives irrevocably altered by that
single, reckless decision.
On a steamy July night in 1943, Sylvie Rosenthal gives birth to a dark-haired baby she knows
is the child of her lover, Nikos. Tormented by the fear that her doting, wealthy husband Gerald
will leave her when he learns the truth, Sylvie desperately seizes the chance fate offers her. When
a fire rages through the hospital that night, she claims a newborn blonde baby of a dead woman as
her own, leaving her real daughter to be raised by strangers.
Rose,
Sylvie’s real daughter, grows up in Brooklyn in genteel poverty, taking care of a hateful
grandmother. It will take her years to become the successful lawyer she was born to be, tutored
by the loving, brilliant Max Griffin—a man who loves her with a passion it will take years to
acknowledge.
Rachel,
raised as Sylvie’s own in an elegant, rose-gardened brownstone, dedicates her life to
medicine. Scarred by a disastrous romance, she volunteers to serve in Vietnam. Then, in a heroic
fight to save a soldier’s life, she falls head over heels in love—only to find that the deceptions of
the past have the power to destroy her. ...
This utterly irresistible page-turner moves from the streets of Manhattan to the jungles of war-
torn Vietnam and back again, exploding in a searing courtroom drama where the dark secret at
the heart of
Garden of Lies
is revealed at last.
Written by the year’s most exciting new novelist,
Garden of Lies
is a book you’ll guiltily stay
up all night to finish. Richly textured and sensual, full of the passion, poignancy and drama that
mark Eileen Goudge as one of our most sensational storytellers, it is a mesmerizing debut.
This is EILEEN GOUDGE’S hardcover debut. She lives with her husband in New York City in
a brownstone they restored.
Jacket design by Neil Stuart
Jacket illustration by Christopher Zacharow
Hand lettering by Todd Radoni
Author’s photograph © Jerry Bauer
VIKING PENGUIN INC.
40 West 23rd Street
New York, N.Y. 10010
Printed in U.S.A.
Garden of Lies
VIKING
Published by the Penguin Group
Viking Penguin Inc., 40 West 23rd Street,
New York, New York 10010, U.S.A.
Penguin Books Ltd, 27 Wrights Lane,
London W8 5TZ, England
Penguin Books Australia Ltd, Ringwood,
Victoria, Australia
Penguin Books Canada Ltd, 2801 John Street,
Markham, Ontario, Canada L3R 1B4
Penguin Books (N.Z.) Ltd, 182-190 Wairau Road,
Auckland 10, New Zealand
Penguin Books Ltd, Registered Offices:
Harmondsworth, Middlesex, England
First published in 1989 by Viking Penguin Inc.
Published simultaneously in Canada
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Copyright © Eileen Goudge, 1989
All rights reserved
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING IN PUBLICATION DATA
Goudge, Eileen.
Garden of lies.
I. Title.
PS3557.O838G37 1989 813’.54 88-40395
ISBN 0-670-82458-5
Printed in the United States of America
Set in Fournier
Designed by Ann Gold
Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into
a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise),
without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book.
To my mother and father,
who made it possible
to dream
Contents
Contents..........................................................................................................................................7
Acknowledgments..........................................................................................................................9
Prologue........................................................................................................................................10
Part I.............................................................................................................................................28
Chapter 1...................................................................................................................................29
Chapter 2...................................................................................................................................46
Chapter 3...................................................................................................................................62
Chapter 4...................................................................................................................................71
Chapter 5...................................................................................................................................88
Chapter 6...................................................................................................................................96
Chapter 7.................................................................................................................................102
Chapter 8.................................................................................................................................106
Chapter 9.................................................................................................................................113
Chapter 10...............................................................................................................................117
Chapter 11...............................................................................................................................127
Chapter 12...............................................................................................................................133
Chapter 13...............................................................................................................................140
Chapter 14...............................................................................................................................150
Chapter 15...............................................................................................................................159
Chapter 16...............................................................................................................................167
Chapter 17...............................................................................................................................172
Part II..........................................................................................................................................176
Chapter 18...............................................................................................................................177
Chapter 19...............................................................................................................................184
Chapter 20...............................................................................................................................191
Chapter 21...............................................................................................................................198
Chapter 22...............................................................................................................................203
Chapter 23...............................................................................................................................214
Chapter 24...............................................................................................................................223
Chapter 25...............................................................................................................................228
Part III.........................................................................................................................................234
Chapter 26...............................................................................................................................235
Chapter 27...............................................................................................................................239
Chapter 28...............................................................................................................................243
