Gold in Havilah: A Novel of Cain’s Wife by Jean Hoefling.

 I reviewed this novel on 23/04/22 in another blog, now defunct. 

Gold in Havilah: A Novel of Cain's Wife

Cain's wife is a nameless biblical woman lost in the early Genesis narrative. Yet what if her life journey wasn't so different from your own?

Akliah is a daughter of Adam and Eve who has grown up at the foot of the pristine holy mountain where the Garden of Eden lies. She and Adam's other children 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. In Nod, she grieves her mistakes while 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 genuine 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 the world's first city, Akliah must finally make the choice to regain her heart's integrity or die trying. 

Perspective by Peter:

I did not have this on my review schedule and only read it out of curiosity to see what this novel is like after I reviewed Ashes Like Bread, the latter as a request by the author. Hence the shorter review.

As I stated in my review of Ashes like Bread, this author writes well with an excellent command of the English language. It is also constructed well and holds your attention. The first-person narrative adds a great layer of intimacy between the character and yourself as she becomes very relational.

Yes, I give a tick to all other things relating to a novel. I was entertained and given a view of life in this era of the biblical timeline and this is done well. And it is written in the style and extensive detail that Hoefling has delivered in Ashes Like Bread. 

My only beef with this novel is the use of her poetic license in relation to the "other" humans that are present that Akilah comes across who are also in search of the One True God and who are not offspring of Adam and Eve. Hoefling adds a reference to where this came from and the author of this supposition that she includes is just that.

I love poetic license where this is used to fill in any gaps between an established narrative/account, truth, or fact where it does not undermine these. In this novel, Hoefling uses poetic license to add that God created other humans besides Adam and Eve so there was no lineage or offspring directly from the latter.

This undermines the Bible and its theology and the motive for God to have created Adam and Eve as the first humans. To me, it also adds other motives that are not explained as to why God did this.

I am willing to ignore this use of poetic license when it is used by authors who are not Christian or do not believe in the Sovereignty of God, doctrines of the Bible, and its doctrines as they know no better or feel they can write as they please. They do not consider they are accountable to anyone let alone God. That is between them and God in the final analysis.

I do have a problem when Christian authors do this. I do not feel it is worth it to change what we know, what the Bible says, or the motives of God. Despite it being fiction, this use of poetic license in this way could become a stumbling block to those whose faith is weak or those who are seeking to know the truth of God and His Word. 

Despite this, I am still interested in seeing what Hoefling does in her next novel, an account of Zyla's brother, Mahalalel. I liked him and his storyline in Ashes Like Bread.

Entertaining, but that is all.