Towing Jehovah
core novel 1994 Godhead Trilogy
Record
| First published | 1994 |
|---|---|
| Original language |  EN |
| Work type | novel |
| Canon status | core |
| Reader rating | 3.87 (3,112 ratings, collected 2026-11-03) |
| First-edition ISBN | 9780151909193 |
| Internal chronology | 1 |
Synopsis
In James Morrow's 1994 novel, God has died, and His body, a cadaver two miles long, floats in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Africa. Anthony Van Horne, the captain of a supertanker, takes a ritual bath in the fountain of the Cux Cloister at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and there meets the archangel Raphael. Raphael hires him for a strange job: to tow the divine corpse north into the Arctic, where the cold will keep it from decaying. The story follows the voyage of Van Horne and his crew with their enormous cargo. It is a religious satire and the first book of the Godhead trilogy.
Where it sits
- Universe: Godhead Trilogy
- Series: Godhead Trilogy core; position 1 of 3 in the series' recorded order
- Author: James Morrow
Awards (verified)
- World Fantasy Award (Best Novel), 1995: won
- Hugo Award (Best Novel), 1995: nominated
- Nebula Award (Best Novel), 1995: nominated
Notes
- From the series record (Godhead Trilogy): Three satirical novels, each with a different protagonist, set in a world where God has died and left a giant corpse.
Neighbouring works
Publication order and internal chronology are tracked as two separate orderings, but they resolve to the exact same sequence for this book, so one combined line is shown instead of two identical ones.
- Reading order, within the series Godhead Trilogy: position 1 of 3: next Blameless in Abaddon (1996)
Sources
← Godhead Trilogy dossier · All universes
Part of the Library. Fields without an identified source are omitted, never guessed.