Sena Jeter Naslund's novels Ahab's Wife, Abundance and Four Spirits have long been favorites of book groups. And last month when I hosted a giveaway of the ARE of her new novel Adam & Eve, the response was overwhelming, so I know readers are excited to dive into her latest work which is out this week in hardcover.
World-renowned astrophysicist Thom Bergmann studied the starry skies as a text to be deciphered for clues pointing toward extraterrestrial life. In the wake of his untimely – and suspicious – death on an Amsterdam street in 2015, his widow, Lucy, is left with nothing more than memories and Thom’s computer flash drive, which she wears on a cord around her neck. Five years later, anthropologist Pierre Saad entreats Lucy to help him smuggle a newly discovered papyrus scroll out of Egypt. The text documents the human authorship of the Book of Genesis – and its reinterpretation of the creation story itself threatens the very foundation of all three major world religions. The last time Lucy saw Pierre was in Amsterdam, where he had traveled at the behest of his good friend Thom Bergmann . . .
Lucy accepts the assignment, but disappears midway through her desperate flight. Stranded by the Tigris-Euphrates River in the Iraq desert, the severely wounded Lucy is rescued by a delusional American soldier, Adam, whose own search for both spiritual and carnal knowledge has led to madness. Ultimately forsaking their mysterious Eden, Lucy and Adam make their way back toward civilization – and the forces that would stop them and the dangerous knowledge that they convey.
Positioned squarely in the ongoing controversy between evolutionists and creationists, Sena Jeter Naslund’s novel Adam & Eve expands the definition of a “sacred book,” and suggests that true madness lies in wars and violence fueled by religious literalism and intolerance, whether Christian, Jewish, or Muslim. A thriller, a romance, an adventure, and an idyll, Adam & Eve is a tour de force by a master contemporary storyteller.
Browse inside Adam & Eve, check out the reading group guide, friend Sena Jeter Naslund on Facebook and look for her on tour near you!
