Genesis plural: Jenny Diski’s reconfiguration of God and his Word in Only Human

Abstract

This article is devoted to Jenny Diski’s polyphonic rewriting of the biblical myth of Abraham and Sarah in Only Human: A Divine Comedy (2000). It shows how this subversive novel, through its juxtaposition of two competing narrative voices – an unidentified human narrator and God himself –, challenges the omniscience and transcendence usually attributed to God, but also the power of his creative Word, and launches a reflection on storytelling and truth, presenting thereby an “only human” Bible.