I, too, Have Suffered in the Garden

Adam Atwater and Joel Grayson are an Austin couple in danger. Adam is chased by rabid ghosts: his former partner’s death from AIDS, his father’s cancer, his brutal job, his own lies. Joel watches from his art studio, desperately strategizing salvation. The story unfurls, tripping between destruction and forgiveness, driven by the suspense of desire and memory. When Joel persuades Adam to accompany him on a weekend getaway to celebrate their anniversary, Adam begins to understand that confessing the truth--the whole truth--will leave him on the verge of losing everything he holds dears. With poignancy, grace, and infinitely readable prose, I, Too, Have Suffered in the Garden illuminates the legacy of psychological trauma, the ways in which the past can malign the present, and the sustainability of even the most fleeting sense of hope.

Along with The Crossing and Smoke and Glass, Jennifer Hritz’s first novel, I, Too, Have Suffered in the Garden, follows Joel, James, and Adam as they navigate life and love. Readers will find the events of I, Too, Have Suffered in the Garden second in the timeline of this trio of novels.

Jennifer Hritz has avid memories of lugging armfuls of books home from the public library in her neighborhood. The author of two novels, The Crossing, and I, too, Have Suffered in the Garden, Jennifer also holds both an M.A. in Literature and Language and a PhD in American Literature. Her first short story won the Chris O’Malley Fiction Prize and was published in The Madison Review. Themes of memory, psychological trauma and betrayal fill her fiction, including her forthcoming third novel, Slow Burn, but she’s keen on keeping her personal life light. She lives in Austin with her son, where she practices yoga, collects local art and once posed as a mermaid in an underwater photo shoot.