Sebastian Faulks returns with Farewell to Eden set in Mandate Palestine
Sebastian Faulks's 17th novel, Farewell to Eden, is due in shops on 17 September. Penguin Books lists that date as its release, and The Guardian published its review on 14 September 2026. The timing puts the review just three days before publication.
The book is presented as a new work of historical fiction, meaning fiction set against real events of the past. It is set in 1946 in Palestine during Britain's mandate. That is the period when Britain governed Palestine under international authority granted after the First World War. The novel sits in the final years of that administration.
Its central figure is infantry officer Philip Deval. He is a Normandy veteran now posted to the Holy Land. War follows him. He begins as second in command of a battalion, a large infantry unit of several hundred soldiers. His unit is charged with handling relations between Jewish and Arab communities.
The plot takes in a defining act of violence from that period. Zionist paramilitaries bomb the King David Hotel in Jerusalem. The hotel held the Palestine police headquarters and the offices of the British administration. The attack tests Deval's mission at close quarters.
Penguin Books lists Farewell to Eden as a book by Sebastian Faulks and describes it as a sweeping and profound novel about faith in all its forms. Faulks's own website uses the same phrase about faith. It also calls the book a portrait of embattled post-war Britain. The language points to two threads: religion and Britain after the Second World War.
Early coverage has framed the book in similar terms. The Times Literary Supplement published a review on 4 September. It describes the novel as a story about one man caught up in the closing days of the British Mandate and its aftermath. The Telegraph published an interview with Faulks about the new novel on 5 September, focused on its setting in Mandatory Palestine.
The Guardian review on 14 September is the latest of the three early pieces. It follows the TLS review and the Telegraph interview in early September. All three appeared in the run-up to the 17 September release.
