Not The End of The World
in journal
by Gerlandine McCaughrean
didn’t like this book at all until the last dozen or so pages and then i loved it. a short book that took a couple of hours to read, it was frustrating and saddening. it tells the story of timna, the only daughter of noah, during the time of the great flood. her eldest brother’s fundamentalist zeal and her father’s “god-will-take-care-of-everything” smugness and blindness was irritating and maddening – though timna herself at time seemed treacherous and blind as well. the author does such a good job showing the slow craziness that comes from forty days at sea without any sure knowledge that the flood will end.
really powerful imagery that will still with me for a while, particularly the survivors of the flood who rap at the walls of the ark and cry out for help while hanging on the branches and bits of logs. reminds me of scences from the titanic – definitely not something i’d imagined hearing previous accounts of noah and his ark. shudder. i definitely want to read more by this author.
[link to the author’s website]
