Description
For his new novel, David Garnett has taken a story from the beginning of the world, one of the most charmingly dramatic - and, incidentally, one of the best documented stories of the Old Testament, that of The Flood. In minutest detail, he has reconstructed a totally credible picture of an event which must, by any standards, have been spectacular.
His two main characters are interpolations, the twins Fan and Niss. These two girls, convinced by Noah's gloomy prophecies regarding the future of mankind, succeed in getting into the Ark as stowaways. In spite of the deluge, the weeks riding the flood, the shortage of food and the problems that arise from living in the animals' quarters, all goes well until they are dis- covered; and it is only when the Ark grounds on Mount Ararat that they are able to escape into a pristine, if still wet, world. Here, with the help of two of Noah's grandsons, they set out upon their travels.
Although Mr Garnett's story was not conceived as a parable of the dangers we live in today, it could be regarded as one. Cer- tainly it is among the most vividly enchanting of all his novels.
