Gold in Havilah: A Novel of Cain's Wife

by Jean Hoefling

Overview

"Author Hoefling (Journey to God, 2010) seamlessly combines her extraordinary mastery of early biblical tales with a spirit of inventive creativity, weaving a story that both embellishes but also preserves the original story... a gripping account that only deepens an inherited tale about the birth of mankind and about good and evil." -Kirkus Reviews

Akliah, a daughter of Adam and Eve, has grown up at the foot of the holy mountain where the Garden of Eden lies. She and her siblings know well the story of their parents’ fall from innocence and their banishment from Eden. And they know the prophecy, that their privileged brother, Cain, will soon crush the head of the ancient serpent who tempted their parents there. Fiercely in love with Cain, Akliah is determined to become his wife. But her schemes are shattered when Cain kills his brother, Abel, and abducts her to a barren land east of Eden where she grieves her mistakes and Cain spirals into ever-deepening tiers of delusion through his bondage to a beautiful fallen angel. When she finally meets a man who offers a chance for love and redemption, Akliah is torn between an honest confession of her past and her longing to be admired. Against the backdrop of life in a city dedicated to dark powers, Akliah must finally make the choice to restore her integrity, or die trying.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781512787986
Publisher:	WestBow Press
Publication date:	06/06/2017
Pages:	344
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.94(d)

About the Author

Jean Hoefling is a freelance copyeditor and writer. She has published two books on her conversion to the Orthodox Church (Regina Press).

She reviews self-published books through Blue Ink Review and blogs for Relief Journal: Art and Faith Unbound. She has been published in several formats and received a notable mention in Best American Essays 2012. She lives in Colorado and enjoys social dancing, hiking, and her church.

Editorial Reviews

2017-10-25
A work of historical fiction that reimagines the biblical story of Cain and Abel from the perspective of Cain's wife, Akliah.Banished from the Garden of Eden, the family of Adam and Eve place their hopes for eventual return in Cain, who's prophesied to kill the Serpent responsible for their exile. However, Cain dithers and becomes increasingly irreverent toward the family and their God. Still, his younger sister, Akliah, pines to become his wife, and when she learns that her older sister, Luluwa, has been promised to him by Adam, she conspires to take her place. Cain is seduced by Lilith, a beautiful ally of the Serpent who convinces him that God is a lying despot. Cain refuses to crush the Serpent and instead intends to populate the Earth with children by both Luluwa and Lilith. After he kills his brother, Abel, he heads east of Eden with Akliah and attempts to establish a new city at Nod to rival the Garden. God marks Cain so that no man can kill him and curses the land so it won't yield food, which only makes Cain more defiant. Akliah is impregnated by Cain and learns of another family—the descendants of Eli. She falls for Eli's son, Gabril, but is ashamed to tell him of her past and goes on to live a tortured life. Author Hoefling (Journey to God, 2010) seamlessly combines her extraordinary mastery of early biblical tales with a spirit of inventive creativity, weaving a story that both embellishes but also preserves the original story. The prose has a rhetorical style that's often powerful in its simplicity: "I was charged with the sacred duty of preparing Eden for all of humanity to enjoy," Adam says at one point. "Yet I did not have enough mastery over myself to do the one thing needful." The plot sometimes slows to a saunter that's much too leisurely, especially when retelling the story from the book of Genesis. Nonetheless, this is a gripping account that only deepens an inherited tale about the birth of mankind and about good and evil.An often remarkable, if sometimes slow-paced, extension of an ancient tale.

Kirkus Reviews