Synopses & Reviews
What happened to Eden?
The New York Times bestselling author of Ahab's Wife, Four Spirits, and Abundance returns with an audacious and provocative novel that envisions a world where science and faith contend for the allegiance of a new Adam & Eve
Her books have been hailed as "exceptional" (People); "enchanting" (Entertainment Weekly); "of great cultural and historical importance" (New York Times Book Review); and "original and affecting" (Los Angeles Times). One of the most imaginative and inspired writers of our time, Sena Jeter Naslund masterfully uses her craft to lay bare the poignant complexity of humanitythe passion and despair, the ignorance and frailty, the genius and resilience that define us. From Victorian London to civil-rights-era Alabama, from nineteenth-century New England to revolutionary Paris, her novels offer profound insight and startling truths about human experience. Now, with Adam & Eve, she delivers her most ambitious and encompassing tale to date.
Hours before his untimelyand highly suspiciousdeath, world-renowned astrophysicist Thom Bergmann shares his discovery of extraterrestrial life with his wife, Lucy. Feeling that the warring world is not ready to learn ofor acceptproof of life elsewhere in the universe, Thom entrusts Lucy with his computer flash drive, which holds the keys to his secret work.
Devastated by Thom's death, Lucy keeps the secret, but Thom's friend, anthropologist Pierre Saad, contacts Lucy with an unusual and dangerous request about another sensitive matter. Pierre needs Lucy to help him smuggle a newly discovered artifact out of Egypt: an ancient codex concerning the human authorship of the Book of Genesis. Offering a reinterpretation of the creation story, the document is sure to threaten the foundation of the Jewish, Christian, and Muslim religions . . . and there are those who will stop at nothing to suppress it.
Midway through the daring journey, Lucy's small plane goes down on a slip of verdant land between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers in the Middle East. Burned in the crash landing, she is rescued by Adam, a delusional American soldier whose search for both spiritual and carnal knowledge has led to madness. Blessed with youth, beauty, and an unsettling innocence, Adam gently tends to Lucy's wounds, and in this quiet, solitary paradise, a bond between the unlikely pair grows. Ultimately, Lucy and Adam forsake their half-mythical Eden and make their way back toward civilization, where members of an ultraconservative religious cult are determined to deprive the world of the knowledge Lucy carries.
Set against the searing debate between evolutionists and creationists, Adam & Eve expands the definition of a "sacred book," and suggests that true madness lies in wars and violence fueled by all religious literalism and intolerance. A thriller, a romance, an adventure, and an idyll, Adam & Eve is a tour de force by a master contemporary storyteller.
Review
“[Naslund] shed[s] light on what the creation myth (and religious fanaticism) reveals about the human condition: that however formative our beginnings may be, they can always give way to the drama of rebirth. In Adam and Eve, Naslund asks, Which is really more important to us?” Elle
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“A wealth of period details...the queen faces imprisonment and beheading with both charm and a new dignity, even the most cynical reader will wish for a last-minute pardon.” Christian Science Monitor
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“This is a wonderful, wonderful novel ...[Naslund] has blown a deep breath of life into Four Spirits.” Detroit Free Press
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“Adam and Eve has the potential of making not simply a splash, but a small tsunami. The novel is nothing less than a futuristic gloss on all creation, pitting religious fundamentalism against the discovery of extraterrestrial life” Louisville Courier Journal
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“A really satisfying surprise ending.” Alabama Writers' Forum on ADAM & EVE
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“Adam and Eve is a book about passionsa carefully crafted mosaic of devoted love, gut-wrenching betrayal, religious extremism, scientific inquiry, artistic expression…a wonderfully imaginative romp.” Huntsville Times on ADAM & EVE
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“[A] charming parable...but along the way, Naslund weaves into the story an effective condemnation of dogma and religious zealotry as well as an understated plea for open-mindedness and tolerance.” Boston Globe
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“[Adam and Eve] transcends the boundaries of the genres it flirts with. In the hands of a lesser storyteller, it might degrade into a flimsy pastiche, but Sena Jeter Naslunds lyrical, exact prose kept me engaged.” Bookreporter.com
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“Exceptional...A richly detailed portrait of an opulent, turbulent time, revealing the Queens journey from frivolity to responsibility, and from palace to prison cell to be one of striking beauty and terrible loss. 4 stars.” People
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“Surprisingly affecting. ” New York Times Book Review
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“To describe the elements of this ambitious novel is to sound unhinged, but Naslund pulls it off. This thriller is rich in brilliant discourses on religion, fanaticism, the meaning of ancient cave art, the speculative future, and love.” Library Journal on ADAM & EVE
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“Naslunds insight and craftsmanship ...capture the complexities and cultural nuances of the times.” San Diego Union-Tribune
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“An intense treat, powerfully written, Ahabs Wife is one of the best contemporary novels I have read in years. Louise Erdrich on Ahab's Wife
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“Filled with the fear Naslund witnessed, the characters ...come to life ....Naslund succeeds splendidly in making history a page-turner.” USA Weekend
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“This is a brave and multifaceted book, propelled by a mission, and ...it is a page-turner.” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
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“Scrupulously researched and vividly presented…its an irresistible story, and Naslund handles its big moments…with impressive assurance. Naslund has done her homework, and imagined her complex, bewitching protagonist in persuasive depth and detail. The result is an exemplary historical novel. ” Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
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“Provocative” New York Times on ADAM & EVE
Synopsis
This thriller is rich in brilliant discourses on religion, fanaticism, the meaning of ancient cave art, the speculative future, and love. Library JournalSena Jeter Naslund, the New York Times bestselling author of Ahab s Wife, Four Spirits, and Abundance explores both the dark nature of fundamentalism and the brightness of true faith in her dazzling novel, Adam & Eve. A provocative, eloquent, and deeply compelling story of a woman caught between two warring worlds science and religion Adam & Eve raises timely questions about identity, innocence, and sin, and represents a new literary high-water mark for New York Times Notable author and Harper Lee Award-winner Naslund."
Synopsis
"This thriller is rich in brilliant discourses on religion, fanaticism, the meaning of ancient cave art, the speculative future, and love."
--
Library Journal
Sena Jeter Naslund, the
New York Times bestselling author of
Ahab's Wife, Four Spirits, and
Abundance explores both the dark nature of fundamentalism and the brightness of true faith in her dazzling novel,
Adam & Eve. A provocative, eloquent, and deeply compelling story of a woman caught between two warring worlds--science and religion--
Adam & Eve raises timely questions about identity, innocence, and sin, and represents a new literary high-water mark for
New York Times Notable author and Harper Lee Award-winner Naslund.
Synopsis
By decoding light from space, Lucy Bergmanns astrophysicist husband discovers the existence of extraterrestrial life; their friend, anthropologist Pierre Saad, unearths from the sands of Egypt an ancient alternative version of the Book of Genesis. To religious fanatics, these discoveries have the power to rock the foundations of their faith. Entrusted to deliver this revolutionary news to both the scientific and religious communities, Lucy becomes the target of Perpetuity, a secret society. When her small plane crashes, Lucy finds herself in a place called Eden with an American soldier named Adam, whose quest for both spiritual and carnal knowledge has driven him to madness.
Set against the searing debate between evolutionists and creationists, Adam & Eve is a thriller, a romance, an adventure, an idyll—a tour de force from Sena Jeter Naslund, one of the most imaginative and inspired writers of our time.
Synopsis
“This thriller is rich in brilliant discourses on religion, fanaticism, the meaning of ancient cave art, the speculative future, and love.”
—Library Journal
Sena Jeter Naslund, the New York Times bestselling author of Ahabs Wife, Four Spirits, and Abundance explores both the dark nature of fundamentalism and the brightness of true faith in her dazzling novel, Adam & Eve. A provocative, eloquent, and deeply compelling story of a woman caught between two warring worlds—science and religion—Adam & Eve raises timely questions about identity, innocence, and sin, and represents a new literary high-water mark for New York Times Notable author and Harper Lee Award-winner Naslund.
About the Author
Sena Jeter Naslund is Distinguished Teaching Professor and Writer in Residence at the University of Louisville and program director of the Spalding University brief-residency MFA in Writing. A winner of the Harper Lee Award for Distinguished Writers, she is the author of eight previous works of fiction, which have been translated into eight languages and published in Australia and the United Kingdom, where her book Ahab's Wife was a finalist for the Orange Prize. Those who've read her novel Abundance, A Novel of Marie Antoinette will recognize the character of Élisabeth Vigée-Le Brun from that book. Naslund lives in Louisville, Kentucky.