Eternal Life
Dara Horn
(Author)
Description
Rachel is a woman with a problem: she can't die. Her recent troubles--widowhood, a failing business, an unemployed middle-aged son--are only the latest in a litany spanning dozens of countries, scores of marriages, and hundreds of children. In the 2,000 years since she made a spiritual bargain to save the life of her first son back in Roman-occupied Jerusalem, she's tried everything to free herself, and only one other person in the world understands: a man she once loved passionately, who has been stalking her through the centuries, convinced they belong together forever.
But as the twenty-first century begins and her children and grandchildren--consumed with immortality in their own ways, from the frontiers of digital currency to genetic engineering--develop new technologies that could change her fate and theirs, Rachel knows she must find a way out.
Gripping, hilarious, and profoundly moving, Eternal Life celebrates the bonds between generations, the power of faith, the purpose of death, and the reasons for being alive.
Product Details
| Publisher | W. W. Norton & Company |
| Publish Date | January 08, 2019 |
| Pages | 256 |
| Language | English |
| Type |  Paperback / softback |
| EAN/UPC | 9780393356564 |
| Dimensions | 8.2 X 5.4 X 0.7 inches | 0.5 pounds |
About the Author
Reviews
An elegant musing on sacredness, history and purpose that is, at the same time, a deliciously romantic, highly suspenseful page-turner.--Geraldine Brooks, author of Horse
In Eternal Life, the familiar account of the joys and sorrows of motherhood turns strange and mythical. Wisdom literature is a rare thing, and even rarer when it arrives, as it does here, in a story so passionate and playful.--Joshua Ferris, author of A Calling for Charlie Barnes
A mature, wry, uniquely female take on the problem of immortality.--Chelsea Leu "Los Angeles Review of Books"
As a philosophical novel, Eternal Life asks the most fundamental of questions: What makes life meaningful? Is its traditional arc, from birth through family formation to death, necessary? Is it a blessing that we insufficiently appreciate?--Julia M. Klein "Forward"
Horn does not hedge her bets, whipping up a Jewish telenovela of ancient-world drama and present-day complications. It'll put you off immortality for good.--Marion Winik "Newsday"
I have been in love with Horn's work since her first gorgeous novel, In the Image.... [Eternal Life] shimmers with Horn's signature blend of tragedy and spirituality.--Ron Charles "Washington Post"
Passionate, playful, and poignant.-- "Parade"
Rachel speaks with the wisdom of the ancients when she observes that immortality offers no consolation for the death of others. 'Not dying doesn't make it better, ' she says of all that sorrow. 'It only makes it take longer.'--Sam Sachs "Wall Street Journal"
The chilling pathos of Dara Horn's Eternal Life is bound to turn every mortal reader into a philosopher of cosmic joy.--Cynthia Ozick, author of Foreign Bodies
To an extent, it's the humor (and horror) of infinite diaper changes that drives this masterful page-turner. However, Eternal Life is at its core a serious meditation on the meaning of life and purpose of death.--Renee Ghert-Zand "Times of Israel"
Riveting, startling, hilarious, and sad--I've never read anything like it.--Elif Batuman, author of The Idiot
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