Eve

by Elissa Elliott

Book Overview

A "highly entertaining" (USA Today) debut novel that presents a powerful new twist on the story of creation's first family, combining the magical, lush storytelling of Madeline Miller's Circe with biblical tradition and recorded history

"Action-packed . . . Raises spiritual questions about free will, creation, and the human relationship with God."--Associated Press

At once intimate and universal, timely and...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0385341458
• ISBN13: 9780385341455
• Release Date: December 2009
• Publisher: Bantam
• Length: 448 Pages
• Weight: 0.78 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 5.3" x 8.1"

Customer Reviews

Amazing

Amazing book, you never see this side of Eve, it really opens your eyes!

All About Eve

This story is told by Eve, the first women. It gives a whole new view of what might have been when she and Adam were put out of Eden. Through the eyes of Eve, Adam, and their children we get an insight to their constant yearning to go back to Eden. They feel God has left them on their own to survive as best they can. Each soul handles the situation differently. Some with strength and courage and some with anger and jealousy. It is an easy and entertaining read. Enjoy.

MAGNIFICENT BOOK! NOT BLASPHEMY AS N. SPARKS SAYS:

I cannot praise Elissa Elliott's book is enough. Rarely have I been more challenged into thinking outside the box than with Ms. Elliott's EVE. My background is of a lifelong evangelical church attender and a graduate of a bible college. When I read N. Sparks "blasphemy" comments I was saddened and forced into writing a response. To give a detailed rebuttal is not necessary for a review such as N. Sparks... that is except for citing what most would consider a more prestigious and insightful reviewer's opinion from USA TODAY who commented, "Non-judgmental readers willing to envelop themselves in Elliott's musings will find Eve highly entertaining." Whenever I hear the sad and usually ignorant word "blasphemy" uttered against a work of fiction or philosophy, I cannot help but be reminded of Galileo... who, as history has shown, was correct. I found Ms. Elliott's work to be incredibly inspiring, and if one takes the time to read the actual Genesis account rather than merely regurgitating something learned in Sunday School, all of Ms. Elliott's facts within EVE are consistent and plausible. This brings me back to my recurring fear that if Jesus were to come back today, He wouldn't want to be called a Christian. Blasphemy is a harsh word. It is, as history has shown us repetitively, usually a term uttered by the ignorant and the fearful. Think about this... have you ever read of Newton, Einstein, Lincoln, Martin Luther King, or Gandhi ever using this term? In contrast, how about the terms used by the religious right, the Inquisition, the Pharisees, the Vatican... this list goes on. I think you may get the idea. So, from my perspective, educated readers, open to thinking, not encased in the hobgoblin of foolish consistency, will be entertained, enlightened and challenged by Ms. Elliott's book. If you'd rather remain addicted to mediocrity and wish to remain safe inside a cocoon of preconceived Sunday School notions, then I recommend reading something else.

eve is a MUST READ

my earliest bible story memories involve adam, eve, and the garden of eden. i would venture to guess that it's this way for all of us, no matter where our spiritual journey has taken us. growing up, i remember the story going something like this: "God made adam, and then he got lonely. so God made eve from adam's rib. all was well, until one day, the serpent (or the devil, as he was called where i learned the story) came to eve and tempted her to eat the apple of the tree of knowledge. she ate, and then she got adam to eat the apple too. then they were both ashamed, and they hid from God. when God realized what they had done, he banished them forever from the garden." the historical novel eve by elissa elliott digs deeply into this basic story, and elliott imagines (very vividly and realistically) what it must have been like for adam and eve once they were banished from the garden and as they set out to make a new life in a foreign land. of course, as the title suggests, eve's voice is primary. in addition, we are privileged to hear the story from the point of view of 3 of her daughters as well. i think a primary struggle i have had as a grown woman with the traditional account of what happened in the garden is that eve was blamed as being primarily at fault for the entire thing. after all, it was SHE to whom the serpent came, and it was SHE who made the decision to eat of the forbidden fruit, and it was SHE who shared the fruit then with adam. i'm sure many, many thesis papers have been written about how this plays into male/female roles in our modern society, but i don't pretend to have studied the ins and outs and will not try to address any of that here. i will say, however, that i think elliott explores this tension extremely well in the novel. she demonstrates the agony eve must have felt, the responsibility, the worry, the guilt, the sadness, the guilt, the torment, the guilt (did i say GUILT?) for making such a poor decision. and we are left wondering, if it were up to adam, would he have chosen the same? probably. after all, as we say, it's human nature, isn't it? elliott explores what it might have been like for adam and eve and their children living in a strange place, with other people living nearby. now, i was taught that all people came from adam and eve, and frankly, i could never figure this out. (by the way, you don't have to comment and try to convince me how...) so a good part of her story involves this first family's dealings with what are described as gypsies living not too far away. the minute i started reading this book, i really couldn't put it down. what's so great to me (because i love this literary device) is that we get to hear FOUR women's voices in this novel, not just one. the highlight to me, more than the actual story, more than the multiple narration, is the WAY elliott writes. most prose in novels (especially ones having to do with anything biblical) is bland at best. the story might be good, but the wo

This book is amazing!

I just finished this book and felt compelled to let others know that it is truly an amazing read. The author manages to touch the heart with poetic words, making the reader want to go slowly and savor each feeling, and at the same time, keep the reader turning the pages quickly to see what will happen next. I am a practicing Catholic, and have no issue whatsoever with how the author ties everything in. It was beautifully written, from the very first sentence to the very last. I even jotted down page numbers to go back to and re-read. I will probably re-read the entire book again.

The Wondrous Song of the Garden

"She sweats, she worries, she prays, she keens, she kneels, she questions, she protects, she argues, she cries, she creates, she talks, she sees, she touches, she listens, she loves, she repents, she remembers. "After all, she is a mother." So says Eve, the legendary mother of mankind, the legendary mother of the earth, so eloquently and yet so simply in Elissa Elliott's Eve: A Novel of the First Woman. In Elliott's magnificent achievement, Eve embodies all of motherhood, feeling the feelings, worrying the worries, asking the questions, finding the answers that all mothers must surely have had since that time in the Garden. For most of the novel, Eve is pregnant. This is a powerful image, for we see a woman struggling with how to raise her existing children while we know that another is just over the horizon, waiting to complicate things, yet populate the world. Eve: A Novel of the First Woman tells a story that most of us probably think we already knew. The Garden of Eden myth is a staple of Judeo/Christian teachings. But this author embellishes, inventing a story lush with character and plot, based on copious research. The bare bones are there: Adam and Eve eat of the forbidden fruit, God casts them out of the Garden, their son Cain slays his brother Abel. But in Elliott's re-imagining of the myth, we meet a family--father, mother, their three sons, their three daughters--and a host of other characters, inhabitants of a nearby city, most likely a Sumerian one, who worship stone gods and cause much conflict in this tale of a mother desperately trying to regain her faith and thus redeem her family. I suspect that there are few people versed in Western ways who haven't heard the Garden of Eden story. So we begin the novel already knowing that Cain will kill his brother Abel. It is never a secret in Elliott's story. But her skill as a writer is such that we, as readers, grow to love and admire Abel so much that his eventual murder by his brother is almost a surprise, both horrific and heartrending. We see Abel's love story unfolding, and we long for him to live and complete that story. Instead, the inevitable happens, and we are immensely saddened. We want to cry out, "God? Why did you let this happen? Why don't you care?" But then, our questions are answered so eloquently in the words of Eve's daughter Aya: "I think, rather, that HE does care. "But He is helpless to intervene, since we have insisted that we want to live life on our own terms." Adam and Eve eat of the forbidden fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, and that knowledge gives them the eyes to see their sons, Cain and Abel, the embodiment of good and evil. But it also gives them the ability to cope, to accept life. In the Garden, they are protected by their God; He desperately wants to keep them from seeing the world as it is. But they choose to eat, and in that eating, they consume the knowledge that God loves and protects, but they