Infinity in the Palm of Her Hand: A Novel of Adam and Eve by Gioconda Belli

From the Publisher

The internationally bestselling author and poet offers a wholly creative reimagining of the biblical story of Adam and Eve.

Prepare to enter a fascinating, primitive universe that goes back to the very beginning, to the story upon which Western civilization is based. Poetry and mystery go hand in hand in this transcendent novel about mankind, as never before imagined. Join Adam and Eve as they discover the world for themselves, feel their confusion and panic when they face punishment, and observe in awe as they experience the power to give life and, eventually, the ability to take it away to survive.

Gioconda Belli's beguiling and soulfully rewarding novel is a parable that captures our own time and our own uncertain future.

Publishers Weekly

Belli's poetry and politics meld in this lyrical retelling of Adam and Eve. Here, the Serpent tempts Eve with freedom equal to that of Elokim, the God who created them, and history "would begin if she ate of the fruit." But with the dawn of history comes the rudest of awakenings: confusion about worlds seen and unseen. Far from the simple characters of Bible class, the planet's first couple as drawn by Belli is layered with complexity and power. Eve may have been the first to bite the fruit, but she's also the creator of life and art; Adam wasn't just complicit in the original sin-he was the first philosopher ("Perhaps we simply weren't aware that we would die. Maybe that was Paradise". The unfolding of knowledge and humanity is both primitive and breathtaking in Belli's view. And without abandoning the timeless biblical story, Belli manages to introduce a modern Darwinian element that's both stark and eloquent. Belli tackles Genesis with perception-rattling gravity. (Mar.)

Mary Margaret Benson - Library Journal

Winner of the Biblioteca Breve Award when it was published in Spanish, this work takes as its inspiration the biblical narrative from Genesis, as well as often more interesting apocryphal versions of the tale. Nicaraguan novelist and poet Belli (The Inhabited Woman) asks whether eating the forbidden fruit was sin or perhaps intellectual curiosity and a quest for the knowledge of good and evil. Was Eve more intelligent than Adam? The novel chronicles Eve's and Adam's journey from paradise into the real world of hunger, thirst, painful childbirth, the joys of sex, the jealousies of children, and the murder of one son by another. Throughout, Eve continues to hold philosophical discussions with the Serpent on the nature of God, humanity, and knowledge. Recommended for all libraries. [See also Elissa Elliott's Eve, p. 77.-Ed.]

Kirkus Reviews

Belli (The Scroll of Seduction, 2007, etc.) profiles the First Woman. The novel, first published in Spain, is a more somber, meditative treatment of the First Family than Elissa Elliott's Eve (2009). Belli's Serpent is female, and mischievous, not evil. Instead of tempting Eve, she reveals that the creator, Elokim, is offering humans the option of inaugurating history (with all that labor, heartbreak, chaos and death) or remaining eternally, happily and, one senses, rather dully (for Elokim, at least) cocooned in Paradise. Once Eve chooses knowledge of good and evil, the first inkling she and Adam experience of fundamental upheaval is violent sexual attraction. Uprooted from the Garden (by a cataclysm involving neither Elokim nor sword-wielding angels), Eve and Adam seek shelter, figuring out everything for the first time. That stomach pain? Hunger. Those previously friendly beasts? Predators-and prey, when Adam discovers that, unlike Eve, he's not a vegan at heart. Blindsided by her nausea and swollen belly, Eve and Adam puzzle out pregnancy, childbirth and nursing by observing animals. Eve bears two sets of fraternal twins, first Cain and Luluwa, then Abel and Aklia. Unlike Elliott, Belli doesn't posit the existence of other humans in Adam and Eve's milieu (although Eve encounters helpful monkeys). Thus mankind's mandate to go forth and multiply entails incest. A rare directive from Elokim, however, forbids the coupling of each son with his twin sister. But Cain prefers beautiful Luluwa to Aklia. When Cain murders Abel, resulting in his and Luluwa's exile, the Serpent has mating suggestions for Aklia that will resolve the reproduction, not to mention the evolution, dilemma. Althoughslowed by philosophical rumination, this narrative presents Adam and Eve and their offspring as individuals, not archetypes. A realistic portrayal of the children of a laissez-faire God.

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