“A dreamy and transgressive feminist retelling of the Great Flood from the perspective of Noah’s wife as she wrestles with the mysterious metaphysics of womanhood at the end of the world.” —O, The Oprah Magazine
With the coming of the Great Flood–the mother of all disasters–only one family was spared, drifting on an endless sea, waiting for the waters to subside. We know the story of Noah, moved by divine vision to launch their escape. Now, in a work of astounding invention, acclaimed writer Sarah Blake reclaims the story of his wife, Naamah, the matriarch who kept them alive. Here is the woman torn between faith and fury, lending her strength to her sons and their wives, caring for an unruly menagerie of restless creatures, silently mourning the lover she left behind. Here is the woman escaping into the unreceded waters, where a seductive angel tempts her to join a strange and haunted world. Here is the woman tormented by dreams and questions of her own–questions of service and self-determination, of history and memory, of the kindness or cruelty of fate.
In fresh and modern language, Blake revisits the story of the Ark that rescued life on earth, and rediscovers the agonizing burdens endured by the woman at the heart of the story. Naamah is a parable for our time: a provocative fable of body, spirit, and resilience.
About the Author
Sarah Blake is the recipient of a Literature Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts. Her writing has appeared in The Kenyon Review, The Threepenny Review, Slice, and elsewhere.
Praise For…
“A dreamy and transgressive feminist retelling of the Great Flood from the perspective of Noah’s wife as she wrestles with the mysterious metaphysics of womanhood at the end of the world.”
—O, The Oprah Magazine
“Historical and mythical women . . . are getting due reconsideration in pop culture. Sarah Blake does something similar with the story of Noah’s Ark, reconstructing that well-known tale around the woman by Noah’s side”
—Elle
“Glorious . . . Blake’s prose is bewitching, and this narrative is an essential correction to the Bible’s male-dominated mythology.”
—Nylon, 50 Books You’ll Want to Read in 2019
“A poetic debut of biblical proportions. . . . [In] mesmerizing prose poem-esque sections, the novel explores themes of sexuality, purpose, loss, love, and faith.”
—Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
“Sarah Blake’s dazzling novel Naamah offers a new vision of storytelling and belief, rendered through the body of a woman. In this beautiful reconception of a flood, Noah’s wife emerges as an earth-bound soul savior as well as a desiring body capable of generating epic myth. In between hope and hell, and up against the divine, Naamah reminds us that the bodies and voices of women were always the heart of the story. Naamah is a new myth-making triumph.”
—Lidia Yuknavitch, author of The Book of Joan and The Small Backs of Children
“No longer a forgotten name, Naamah is achingly alive here, pulsing with questions and desires. Sarah Blake’s prose is sensual, hallucinatory, dream-sharp—a beguiling debut from an immensely talented writer.”
—Leni Zumas, author of Red Clocks
