A ForeWord Reviews BOOK OF THE YEAR for Historical Fiction. Noah’s Wife transports readers to an ancient time and place, while delving into issues that affect our contemporary lives–family relationships, autism, religious freedom, kidnapping and cultural change. A biblical novel that is not “Christian Fiction,” T.K. Thorne’s version weaves myth, history, and archeological findings with her … with her vivid imagination, wisdom and humor into an epic tale you will not forget. Told from the unique perspective of a young girl with what is now called Aspergers, this is the story of Noah’s completely unknown wife, Na’amah.
Na’amah wishes only to be a shepherdess on her beloved hills in ancient Turkey– a desire shattered by the hatred of her powerful brother and the love of two men.
Her savant abilities and penchant to speak truth forces her to walk a dangerous path in an age of change–a time of challenge to the goddess’ ancient ways, when cultures clash and the earth itself is unstable. When foreign raiders kidnap her, Na’amah’s journey to escape and return home becomes an attempt to save her people from the disaster only she knows is coming.
EXCERPT:
“My name, Na’amah, means pleasant or beautiful. I am not always pleasant, but I am beautiful. Perhaps that is why I am trundled atop this beast like a roll of hides for market and surrounded by grim-faced men. If my captors had bothered to ask me, I would have told them that their prize is of questionable value because my mind is damaged. But they did not, and I lie draped, belly down, across the back of an auroch, a large black ox with an eel stripe that runs down his spine and a stench worse than a rutting goat.
CRITICAL PRAISE:
“. . . a terrific storyteller.”
—Sena Jeter Naslund, Bestselling novelist, Ahab’s Wife, Four Spirits, etc.
“T.K. Thorne is a magical writer. In Noah’s Wife, she turns Biblical lore upside down…and makes us believe every word of this novel is true. Her writing is flat-out brilliant and spellbinding. …I couldn’t put it down.”
—Elsa Rutherford, NiftyPickle.com columnist, novelist
“. . . an extraordinary work.”
—Dianne Mooney, founder of Southern Living At Home
“. . . a novel of epic sweep, emotional power, and considerable beauty.”
—Ron Gholson, The Blount Countian
“. . . awed at Thorne’s ability to work magic with words. Her mastery kept me awake many nights.”
—Sherry Kughn, Anniston Star
“Noah’s Wife is one of the best novels I have ever read— and I average about a book a week.”
—Barry Marks, Alabama Poetry Book of the Year for Possible Crocodiles
“So compelling and readable. Brava! Excellent! I am basking in the glow of a fascinating, complex read.”
—Jane Archer, Professor of English, Birmingham Southern College
“Well-researched, well-written, engaging book that is absolutely one of the best reads I have had in a long time.”
—Gail Sheldon, Director Oneonta Public Library
“Masterfully created . It is a MUST READ! Thorne is exceptionally gifted in her sensitivity to life, love, and loss.”
—L. Nolan-Ruiz, Editor, InternationalBookCafé.com
“A novel of great enchantment, suspense and power . . . looks like a BESTSELLER to me.”
—Malcom R. Campbell, author,
Sun Seeker and Jock Stewart and the Missing Sea of Fire
“. . . with an understanding of what makes us humans tick, Thorne looks at our origins in a brand new way. It’s more Clan of the Cave Bear than theological treatise—and that’s a whole lot more fun!”
—John Archibald, Birmingham News
“Not since Mists of Avalon or Ahab’s Wife have I enjoyed such a finely crafted woman’s point of view on an oft-told tale.”
—Perle Champion, freelance writer and artist, Alabama Writer’s Forum
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Once in a while you start reading a book out of boredom and are stunned to find that you can’t put it down. This was such a book. Growing up with the Biblical picture of Noah in my head made this book even more enjoyable!! Sometimes we forget that Biblical characters also had real lives. The book is fictional but it was fun to think about how Noah may have started the ark.
The author takes the story of Noah’s Ark, mixes it with modern-day knowledge from archeological digs and scientific evidence, and spins a tale of what might really have occurred. With excellent writing and characters that are both realistic and engaging, the novel is told through the eyes of a brave young girl whose differences make her question everyone and everything. This is a story readers won’t soon forget.
Na’amah is born into violence, a violence that takes her mother’s life in childbirth, engenders an animosity with her brother, and isolates her from her village community. Considered damaged and wounded with a head misshaped by childbirth, Na’amah is noticeably different from the other children.
Resistant to the physical touch of anyone other than her beloved grandmother Savta, Na’amah cannot gaze into others’ eyes directly or interpret nonverbal cues. She has difficulty lying and often blurts what she is thinking before considering the repercussions. She is physically beautiful yet slight of statue and is often the target of brutal jokes and jibes, led sadly by her own brother Tubal, who carries a mysterious hatred of her.
But Na’amah understands and loves animals, especially sheep, and is happiest when she is in the hills watching over them. She knows that one day, after her blood flows, she will be married and assigned the task of cooking, weaving, mending, and caring for a house and children; yet she finds no interest in these domestic tasks and wishes only to be outdoors with her sheep.
At market when she is around twelve, Na’amah meet Bennu, a bird “white like an egret, but with a sharp, overjutting top beak” that sits cramped in a small cage. Na’amah gets too close to the bird and causes a crash that breaks open the cage, and Bennu gets out. With its clipped wings, however, it is unable to escape and in frustration alights on Na’amah’s shoulder, its talons digging into her flesh.
She feels a man’s gaze and turns. Before her stands a very large man with blue eyes, a large hooked nose and full lips, a “wild bramble of hair and beard,” and a “stink of his body . . . strong enough to rise above the general odor of animals and men.” She has met Noah.
Noah arrives at her house a few days later, bearing Bennu as a gift, and with her father negotiates a betrothal for Na’amah, promising to wait three years before its consummation to allow the young Na’amah to grow into womanhood.
Na’amah does not wish to be betrothed, and we watch as she struggles to grow up under the torments of Tubal that intensify after her father’s death. To spite her, when Tubal takes over as head of the house, he rejects Na’amah’s betrothal to Noah and violently delivers her instead to Yanner, Na’amah’s childhood friend who has for a long time secretly loved Na’amah.
Na’amah escapes and runs to Noah, but Tubal and his posse follow her there and assault Noah. Na’amah escapes again and flees, but she is captured by slavers and is carried off on the back of an aurochs toward a distant land.
The Genesis story (King James Version) describes Noah’s world as “…the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.” But were there no people who were kind and sought to live in peace? What about Noah’s wife and the family from which she came? She is given no name and is barely mentioned in Genesis.
In Noah’s Wife, T.K. Thorne breathes life into this forgotten wife and mother, whom she names Na’amah, a name accepted by many Hebrew historians. There is violence and idol worship and ungodliness in Na’amah’s world, but here we find a young girl who wants to live simply and in a world of non-lies. We follow her through a dangerous world as she journeys and eventually reunites with Noah as he builds her a “boat-house.” And yes, we do finally see a menagerie of beasts and a great flood, but this story is not about the flood or Noah.
This is about a brave young girl named Na’amah.
Noah’s Wife is compelling and beautifully written. I was immediately caught up in the story and couldn’t put it down. Hence, I read it in two days, but I don’t recommend that. I have marked many passages that are especially poetic or meaningful that now I will go back and enjoy.