This extraordinary novel imagines the “reality” of Noah’s Ark: what it would be like to be saved while your neighbours and friends drown around you. It evokes the grief, loss and cruelty of the almost complete destruction of mankind, as well as the grimness of a floating zoo — dung, flies, noise, proliferating rodents, and the carnage when predator and prey cannot be kept apart. And Noah is not heroic. He is a patriarchal zealot, so certain that he understands the will of God that he will happily sacrifice the rest of humanity to his notion of the divine intent. Narrated by several of Noah’s family (notably his defiant daughter Timna) and even by some of the animals, this, as we expect from McCaughrean, is an extremely fine piece of writing. Characters are distinguished with precision, including Noah’s daughters-in-law — variously snobbish, silly and rebellious — and Noah’s wife, whose philosophy that her husband knows best is severely tested. There are some wonderful departures from the myth: that among the species lost in the Ark, for example, was the rainbow-coloured “quexolan”, the most beautiful creature on earth

(OUP £10.99).

Explore Books

• Book Extracts

• Book Reviews

• Books Group

• Audio Books

Times Recommends

• If you only buy one book this Christmas make sure it's...
• The Times Christmas Books 2008: Gifts
• 10 Books Not To Read Before You Die