Many Waters Cannot Quench Love
This one is a re-read. I have been listening to the audio version of the book during my daily commutes and while doing routine lab work. I absolutely love how Madeleine L'Engle combines science, religion and magic and presents them all as part and parcel of the same reality. Many Waters discusses unicorns, physics, and the biblical(ish) Noah story all in the same breathe. If you are familiar with the time quartet, this is the third book in the series and follows Sandy and Dennys who we first met as minor characters in the wonderful Wrinkle in Time. In this book the twins unknowingly interrupt their father's physics experiment and are sent to the pre-flood desert.
It's interesting what you pick up on when you re-read old favorites. One aspect of these novels that I found cozy and charming when I read as a child is the fact that Mrs. Murray (the Mother) is in the habit of cooking over the Bunsen burner in her lab (which is in her house) . How cool I thought! She makes dinner for her family AND she does Science. Having your own lab would be amazing, but the thought of cooking in the same room as carrying out biological experiments now seems terribly unsanitary and even a bit nauseating. The other part where we have to suspend belief is when their father is conducting what is probably a top secret physics experiment and he does not even lock the door, he just leaves a small post it note saying experiment in progress.
However these two parental mishaps are what precipitates the events of the story as the twins go into the lab looking for hot chocolate and jokingly type out their wish to be somewhere warm with low humidity and low population onto their fathers computer. This flings them through time and space onto the pre-flood desert. There, they become involved with Noah's family, and it eventually dawns on them that this is The Noah that they vaguely remember from Sunday school classes. What unfolds is a beautiful story of love and friendship and good and evil. Don't let my misgivings over lab-cooking deter you, this is a lovely story by one of my favorite authors.
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