Blood of Adam by Rachel S. Neal - This book has been in my kindle library for a very long time, and I finally got around to reading it. And wondering why I waited so long. The Biblical account of Noah and the great flood does not give the names of Noah's wife or his son's wives, and we don't really know any details about them. Author Rachel S. Neal imagined names, personalities, and backgrounds for these very important women.
Denah, the wife of Japheth, is the subject of this story. She is imagined as the daughter of a merchant that had grown up with Noah but had not chosen to follow the One God. The story opens on Denah's wedding day, when she becomes Japheth's bride amid her doubts and questions about whether she would be accepted by his family and what it would mean for her future. Most people believed there was some kind of curse on Noah's household because of the ark project and their insistence that only the God of Adam should be worshiped. As far as the people in town were concerned, the sons of Noah were cursed because their wives still had no children. Denah hoped she would be the one to have the first son.
Building and preparations on the giant ark continue throughout the story, as the backdrop to Denah and Japheth clumsily navigating their relationship. Denah feels out of place with her mother-in-law and sisters-in-law, and misses parts of her old life, such as making beautiful colored dyes for clothing. Her desperation for a baby grows as the months go by. She learns more about the One God from Noah's teaching and from what grandfather Methuselah tells her, but the ways of her father's household and everyone else she has known seem to be more successful. Denah's choices lead to hurt, betrayal, and even blackmail; but will she choose the right way before it's too late?
I really enjoyed the story telling and world building in this novel, and appreciated that it was solidly based in what the Bible does say about this family and the times of the flood. I'd never thought much about these women, and it was interesting to wonder how much they were really "on board" with preparing an ark for a great flood and what they might have expected. And what of their extended families? The households of these wives were not saved from the flood, and how would they have felt about that? I did find the writing style to be a bit uneven in places - the story telling was so good, and the writing was good in some places, but in other passages the word choices seemed clumsy or confusing, almost like the author was trying too hard.
From the publisher:
Before the earth splinters into continents, before the first raindrops fall from the sky, only one family is destined for salvation. Denah is not among them by choice. Her husband is a disgrace, her sisters-in-law are cursed, and the family adheres to the rigid demands of an outdated God. Denah simply wants the life she deserves. She will follow her own forbidden path to fulfillment, encountering blackmail, jealousy, and betrayal along the way. What she deserves turns out to be far different than what she imagines, and she must face the tumultuous consequences of her decisions before the past and future of all mankind collide in the shadow of Noah's ark.
This is a book with more than 40 chapters (#3) for The 52 Book Club's 2024 Reading Challenge.
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