A Children's Bible: A Novel
by Lydia Millet
Buy on AmazonPulitzer 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.…
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"A group of families is vacationing when bad weather hits. Actually, it’s a full-fledged natural disaster; in fact, maybe it’s the end of the world? The parents are lost in hedonistic oblivion, leaving the teens in charge. This is not like any climate change novel you’ve ever read. Allegorical but never pat, it pivots on young people’s anger about the world they’ve inherited. And you know what? We deserve it."
NPR Books We Love — 2020 · apps.npr.org