Sinners and the Sea
Read Sinners and the Sea Online
Authors: Rebecca Kanner
Tags: #Fiction, #Historical, #Christian, #Religious, #General
ADVANCE PRAISE FOR
SINNERS AND THE SEA
“We think we know Noah’s story, but he was not alone on the ark; what was the experience of his wife, his family? Rebecca Kanner’s vividly imagined telling re-creates the world of the Bible, and asks powerful questions about the story and about ourselves.”
—Rabbi David Wolpe of Sinai Temple, Los Angeles, author of
Why Faith Matters
“Rebecca Kanner brings the antediluvian world of giants, prophets, and demons alive, setting her narrative in motion from the first chapter and never letting it rest. She is a writer of great dexterity, performing tricks at a full sprint.”
—Marshall N. Klimasewiski, author of
The Cottagers
and
Tyrants
“Sinners and the Sea
is an excellent example of the traditional Jewish method of Midrash meeting the modern writer’s pen. Kanner does a masterful job of penetrating the depths of the biblical flood narrative and weaving in the complicated reality of challenging relationships and longings for personal fulfillment. Her desire to go beyond the traditional midrashic understanding of the lives she explores introduces us to a courageous and insightful young writer whose first book will take its place alongside other exciting modern rereadings of the ancient biblical text.”
—Rabbi Morris Allen of Beth Jacob Congregation
“
Sinners and the Sea
is a rare find—a bold and vivid journey into the antediluvian world of Noah. Kanner’s is a fresh, irresistible story about the unnamed woman behind the famous ark-builder. Compelling and masterfully written.”
—Tosca Lee,
New York Times
bestselling co-author of The Books of Mortals series
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CONTENTS
Chapter 1: A Marked and Nameless Girl
Chapter 3: The Power of the Mark I
Chapter 4: A Journey Deep into the Desert
Chapter 21: The Other Prophet’s Daughter
Chapter 23: Zilpha’s Beloved Mammoth
Chapter 24: The Town’s Laughter
Chapter 26: Helping Hands, Strange Tongues
Chapter 30: A Question, a Deal
Chapter 34: The Giant Versus the Sea
Chapter 35: Life Aboard the Ark
Chapter 36: Beyond the Reach of Light
Chapter 37: A Ship in the Distance
Chapter 44: The Power of the Mark II
Chapter 47: The Sea Goes Still
Chapter 48: Two Birds and a Branch
For my father,
and for all of my teachers,
in and outside the classroom.
BOOK ONE
CHAPTER 1
A MARKED AND NAMELESS GIRL
T
hey say it is the mark of a demon. When I was a child, none took their chances by coming close to me, and certainly no one touched me. It looks as if a large man dipped his palm in wine and pressed it to my forehead above my left eye.
After I was born, the midwife seized the afterbirth and rubbed it over the mark. Then the afterbirth was buried, so that when it decayed, the mark would disappear too. But the mark grew darker. By my second year it had gone from red to purple.
My father tried every known remedy. He anointed it daily with olive oil, rubbed it with a sheep’s hoof, even offered the gods the smallest finger on his left hand to take it away. But the gods did not accept his finger. They dulled the heat of the fire he set to send it up to them so that it only smoked and did not burn.
He had not named me for fear it would be too easy then for
people to talk and spread lies, and he was glad of this when the gods would not hear his plea.
There was not another tent within fifty cubits of my father’s. So as not to catch my affliction through their gazes, when people hurried past to catch an errant sheep or child, they looked at me out of the corner of one eye or not at all. Once a man four tents away chased his goat to only a few cubits from my father’s land, then stopped suddenly when he saw me at the cookfire and ran back in the direction he had come.