‘Had it not been for those two insufferable trees, life in the Garden might just have worked out, or at least it would have taken much longer for the expulsion to arrive. It is also possible, at least according to Kafka, that we never left – whether we know it or not.’

The first eleven chapters of the Book of Genesis are often grouped together to form one discrete textual unit. The stories that make up this cycle – Creation, Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, Cain’s sacrifice, Noah’s ark and the flood, and the Tower of Babel – are among the most enduring stories recounted in the history of Western culture and form the basis of its common heritage, transcending religious, national and geographical boundaries.

In the vein of luminaries such as Franz Kafka and Søren Kierkegaard, the book treads the path from Eden to Babel in the form of thirty irreverent philosophically-minded variations, playing on themes of creation, hope and sacrifice. Finally, a diverting burlesque called The Invention of Desire describes what really happened in the Garden to that notorious threesome: Woman, Man and Serpent.