Rebecca_Gaulton

As a lover of long, lengthy drama filled books, I am always looking for the short, sweet, entertaining books that give me a breather in between tragedies. My guilty pleasure is Sue Grafton and others like her. This book held the promise of that kind of refreshment. It's short (I read it in afternoon), kind of sweet but it stopped short of being very entertaining. It was superficial and predictable and left me wondering if I had actually figured everything out before I even started reading. Perhaps if I already had a relationship with the detective Tess Monaghan, I might have forgiven some of the short comings. I am wondering if Laura Lippman has the potential to be my next breath of fresh air between novels and I will give her another chance but, as a mystery, this one left me scratching my head.

In Sena Jeter Naslund’s beautifully written novel, "Adam & Eve", Lucy Bergmann finds herself facing worlds and dilemmas of extreme opposites. After the death of her husband, she unwillingly becomes the carrier of two secrets that threaten the core of three major religions. She lives in a world of never-ending war, but crashes into an oasis. It’s a breathtaking world, a real Eden where she meets Adam, a man with a fragile mind, victimized by brutal violence whose faith in God is iron.

This is a book about faith; faith in God, love and humanity. In our world of science and war and violence its difficult sometimes to hold on to belief in a God; yet Naslund suggests that its in these times that we need faith most. A book of memorable characters and an uplifting message, it challenged me to look at my own faith and beliefs and how well they stand up to threats of the modern world and science and whether they would hold steady in the face of crisis. Another outstanding book by Sena Jeter Naslund.