This takes the story of Noah (here, called Noe), and makes a human story of it. It deals with irritating questions such as how animals from across the globe came to be on the Ark - Noe's sons were married into a positive United Nations, and could send their wives to their homelands!

Of course, given the source material, one should be prepared for a willing suspension of disbelief.

Maine tells the story between the various points-of-view of the family members. Noe, for instance, is portrayed as a religious loonie who heard voices, lost arguments to these voices, rejoyced in the sight of unbelivers dying. He didn't, however, seem particularly conversant in the myths and legends associated with Noah or Noe or Gilgamesh or whatever he was called. I wasn't sure whether he was telling a story of family ties and moral ambiguity, or out-and-out entertainment. What we got was a fairly superficial story.

He tried a bit too hard, I think, to to inject modern concepts such as feminism into a different age. This was most obvious in Ilya, the hyperborean wife of Noe's son Cham. I was actually deeply offended by her remark, in response to Noe's rapture at the sight of unbelivers drowning in the deluge: "Only a man could call a child filth. No woman could look at a dead infant and feel such happiness".

Oh yeah? He must have missed reports of the women, such as Pauline Nyiramasuhuko who freely participated in, nay, organized the Rwandan genocide. Nonsense. Complete and utter nonsense.

That said, the story chunttered along fairly pleasantly. There were a few funny moments, such as when Noe, in a dream-sequence, accidentially knelt on Yahweh who had assumed the form of an ant.

However, if you want a more literate and serious attempt to recreate a mindset from a different era, read 'The Gospel According to Jesus Christ' by Jose Saramago. If you want a funnier read, try 'History of the World in 10 and a Half Chapters' by Julian Barnes.

Oh, this appear to have been published as 'The Preservationist' in North America.