A Children's Bible: A Novel

by Lydia Millet

Genres: Fantasy; General Fiction; Visionary & Metaphysical

Synopsis

Finalist for the 2020 National Book Award for Fiction One of the New York Times ' Ten Best Books of the Year One of Time 's Ten Best Novels of 2020 A New York Times and Washington Post Notable Book of 2020 An indelible novel of teenage alienation and adult complacency in an unraveling world. Pulitzer Prize finalist Lydia Millet’s sublime new novel—her first since the National Book Award long-listed Sweet Lamb of Heaven —follows a group of twelve eerily mature children on a forced vacation with their families at a sprawling lakeside mansion. Contemptuous of their parents, who pass their days in a stupor of liquor, drugs, and sex, the children feel neglected and suffocated at the same time. When a destructive storm descends on the summer estate, the group’s ringleaders—including Eve, who narrates the story—decide to run away, leading the younger ones on a dangerous foray into the apocalyptic chaos outside. As the scenes of devastation begin to mimic events in the dog-eared picture Bible carried around by her beloved little brother, Eve devotes herself to keeping him safe from harm. A Children’s Bible is a prophetic, heartbreaking story of generational divide—and a haunting vision of what awaits us on the far side of Revelation.

Release date: May 12, 1920

Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company

Print pages: 229