A floating Eden. A keep of beasts. Mankind begins again.
The famed prophet and shipbuilder lays in his tent, on his deathbed. The family gathers, as family will, taking turns at his side-a few minutes, a day. Each brings their memories, scars, and burdens. A wife, three sons, and their three wives-each knows the past, and each offers a telling.
The prophet shipbuilder is dead.
A family history is revealed.
From smallest detail to sweeping revelation, we are told of life inside the family that survived the prophecy, absorbed the ridicule and carried the memory. Construction plans scratched onto slate, snakes the girth of cedar trunks, and a vineyard reduced to a pasture of ash. With the sunrise over a new world, a single narrative emerges of life inside the clan of Noah.
Life with Noah wasn't easy. Life without him wasn't possible.
The longest shadow on earth was cast by the work of their hands.
Dave came to belief as a child and grew up steeped in biblical narratives. His mother read to him and his father was a pastor as well as a student of both theology and biblical languages.Growing up, Dave often asked his father to read aloud the scriptures in their original Hebrew and Greek. While Dave could not understand them, the music of these languages in their original tongue fascinated him. His father's library of commentaries now lines a wall in his home.In his debut novel, The Confessions of Adam, a re-telling of the universal and dramatic narrative that opens the book of Genesis, he has crafted a richly imagined story of creation and its aftermath-drawing on a lifetime of familiarity with the text as well as more recent study. The Confessions of Adam was a 2020 Oregon Christian Writers Cascade Award finalist and a 2021 Illumination Award medalist.David J. Marsh holds a BS in Communications from Grace College, Winona Lake, IN and an MFA in Creative Writing from Butler University, Indianapolis. Dave's work has been recognized by or appeared in Utmost, Booth Online, NoiseMedium, and Fixional.Dave facilitates the Westside Writers' Workshop and twice monthly he posts a column on the craft of fiction called "Revel and Rant" at www.davidjmarsh.com. Please join Dave on Instagram @davidjmarshauthor and Facebook @DavidJMarshAuthor.Dave and his wife Cyndi reside in Avon, Indiana.
