My take on: Noah's Wife

A minister and her wife arrive in a dreary, wet, gray town. It rains all day and all night. It has rained for as long as anyone can remember. The people in this community are very tight-knit. The community is resistant to change -- and to newcomers. But as the rains increase, and the rivers rise this town will have to change. Their lives depend on it.

Noah's Wife by Lindsay Starck is a modern-day take on Noah's Ark.

From beginning to end, I wasn't sure what to make of this book. I liked the writing. I liked the characters. When I was finished, I was left with "what does this all mean?" I'm not overtly religious. I was worried about that going into this book.

Was this going to be a book preaching about the virtues of religion?

It's not a preachy book. This is a story about people. About the people they love. About the choices they make. About the consequences. About the future. These are themes that everyone can relate to.

Noah has been assigned to this town after the previous minister died under mysterious circumstances. Noah believes he can help this town. He believes he can help restore the town's faith in God and in each other. Noah's Wife want to help her husband. All she has to do is be supportive and make friends. But both of them were drowning before they arrived in this town. Noah's faith in himself and in God is waning. Noah's Wife has lost herself in her marriage.

The townspeople are equally in turmoil. Mrs. McGinn is the town matriarch. People come to her for help, but she has trouble solving problems within her own family. Mrs. McGinn's daughter, Angela Rose, wants out of this town. Her fiance, the zookeeper, wants to stay. But both of them have trouble expressing their feelings. The zookeeper loves Mrs. McGinn's daughter, but he also loves taking care of the animals at the local zoo. Who would take care of the animals if he wasn't there? Mrs. McGinn's daughter doesn't understand that desire to help others. She only understands her desire to leave this town. Mauro, the local shopkeeper, has literally lost his life savings to this town. That money was going to be his way out. Where will his motivation to go on come from?

With the ever increasing water in the town, the animals are forced out of the zoo and into the homes of everyone in town. Snakes, peacocks, penguins, alligators, zebras, and more flood the community. The weatherman, who is an outsider, tries to warn the town of the increasing danger. The weatherman tries to get them to leave before they all die. But if they try to leave, it will force the town to face their problems. No one wants to face their problems in this town.

The ending is a bit open-ended, but I can't see the book ending any other way. There's hope for the town, but things could easily go the other way. But if there is something that bugged me about this book, it's the names. Why couldn't Noah's Wife get a name? I wasn't referring to her that way by accident. Unless I missed it, Noah's Wife never got an actual name. Otherwise, this is a book that I would recommend and an author I would read again.

Rating: Superb

Note: I received a copy of the book from the publisher (Penguin) in exchange for an honest review.