"Paul Reyes has found a secret entrance into the underground of the recent economic apocalypse---'trashing out' foreclosed houses in Florida of their previous owner's abandoned goods. Part expedition, part anthropology, Reyes journeys into the dark swamp of the Sunshine State's housing market---and ultimately America's economic rot---with a great eye for detail and characters. Nonfiction has found its Carl Hiaasen."---Jack Hitt. author of Off the Read: A Modern-Day Walk Down the Pilgrim's Roate into Spain"Florida real estate has always been a Ponzi Scheme, economically and environmentally unsustainable. The excellent journalist Paul Reyes has picked through its ruins, literally and literarily, and the result is the poignant and definitive story of the end of an era of insanity."---Michael Grunwald, author of The Swamp: The Everglades, Florida, and the Polities of ParadisePaul Reyes picked an explosive time to join his father's business of "trashing out" foreclosed homes. Alongside his father and an unlikely duo of longtime employees named Hector and Ismael, Reyes spent months clearing out hundreds of properties, sorting through and removing the detritus of their vanished occupants. The job was simply to clean them out and fix them up, but Reyes was haunted by the chaos of personal effects left behind. His rich discoveries launched a poignant investigation into the foreclosure crisis and the complex human ecosystem surrounding it.Exiles in Eden takes readers across Florida on a tour that begins with the economic meltdown of 2008, moving through the Great Recession into the fascinating corners of post-recession Florida. Along the way, we meet an ex-convict turned deacon who is manipulated by brokers into refinancing a house he couldn't afford; a variety of self-willed real estate tycoons who see the sale of subprime mortgages as a job just like any other; and a groundbreaking anti-eviction revolutionary named Max Rameau, who brings the debate over housing and property rights into the open by helping the homeless find shelter in foreclosed homes.In this moving and unique story, Reyes weaves together his own family history with an illuminating portrayal of the world of eviction---a world to which his family is inseparably bound. He delves into fundamental questions of property, family, displacement, and belonging. With lush, lively writing and the savvy of a first-rate journalist, he shares with his readers a wealth of understanding about the unseen social consequences of the foreclosure crisis and the real stories behind the recession. Part expose and part meditation, Exiles in Eden is as powerful as it is timely. Read Less