Eternal Life

Name: Eternal Life
Brand: Recorded Books
Availability: InStock
Rating: 5 (2 reviews)
Author: Dara Horn
ISBN: 9781501979576

Author: Dara Horn

Narrator: Elisabeth Rodgers

Unabridged: 8 hr 54 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Recorded Books

Published: 01/23/2018

Categories: Fiction, Literary Fiction

Synopsis

The award-winning, critically acclaimed author returns with an ingenious novel about what it would mean to live forever. Rachel has an unusual problem: she can't die. Her recent troubles-widowhood, a failing business, an unemployed middle-aged son-are only the latest. She's already put up with scores of marriages and hundreds of children, over 2,000 years-ever since she made a spiritual bargain to save the life of her first son back in Roman-occupied Jerusalem. There's only one other person in the world who understands: a man she once loved passionately, who has been stalking her through the centuries, convinced they belong together forever. In 2018, as her children and grandchildren develop new technologies for immortality, Rachel knows she must enable her beloved offspring to live fully-without her, but with meaning-by finding a way for herself to die. 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.

About Dara Horn

Dara Horn earned her Ph.D. in comparative literature from Harvard University in 2006. In 2007, she was chosen by Granta magazine as one of the Best Young American Novelists. Her first novel, In the Image, received a National Jewish Book Award, an Edward Lewis Wallant Award, and a Reform Judaism Fiction Prize. Her second novel, The World to Come, received the 2006 National Jewish Book Award for Fiction and was selected as an Editor's Choice by the New York Times Book Review and as one of the Best Books of 2006 by the San Francisco Chronicle. She has taught courses in Jewish literature and Israeli history at Harvard and at Sarah Lawrence College, and she has lectured at universities and cultural institutions throughout the United States and Canada. Dara lives with her husband, daughter, and son in New Jersey.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Jaime on November 18, 2017

I very rarely write reviews on GR anymore, but this book struck me in such a way that it felt strangely familiar yet very new. Maybe because of the Jewish history woven throughout the book, maybe because of the themes of death and rebirth and parenting that seem to be so prevalent in my life lately;......more

Goodreads review by robin on March 31, 2024

Rachel Weeping For Her Children Sometimes reading one book leads directly to another. I had just read a book by a 20th century American philosopher, William E. Hocking, exploring issues surrounding the role of death in human experience and in understanding the meaning of life and the possibility of a......more

Goodreads review by Barbara on March 14, 2018

Author Dara Horn’s latest work, “Eternal Life” considers what it would be like if you could never die. What would life after life after life be like? Protagonist Rachel made a deal with a high priest (what we would consider a deal with the devil) that if her sick son doesn’t die, she would give up h......more

Goodreads review by Shannon on March 01, 2018

(UPDATE 3/1): LOOK. YOU JUST NEED TO READ THIS BOOK. I continue to be obsessed with this perfect book. I've already purchased it for three people. I only purchase books for other people if the book IS ABSOLUTELY PERFECT IN EVERY WAY. (UPDATE 2/27): Fuller review to come shortly, keeping mid-range re......more