Only Begotten Daughter (Hardcover, Turtleback School & Library ed.)

Call it a miracle. Call it an accident at the sperm bank. But Murray Katz, the celibate keeper of an abandoned lighthouse near Atlantic City, has been blessed with a daughter conceived from the union of his own seed and a holy ovum. Like her half brother Jesus, Julie Katz can walk on water, heal the blind, and raise the dead. But being the Messiah isn't easy. Poor Julie, bewildered about her role in the divine scheme of things, is tempted by the Devil and challenged by firebombing neo-Christian zealots - and that's just the beginning of her fantastic odyssey through Hell, a seceded New Jersey, and her own confused soul.

"Highly imaginative, funny and irreverent" ( "Publishers Weekly" ), James Morrow's "Only Begotten Daughter" garnered the World Fantasy Award for best novel in 1990. Morrow, the "Washington Post" said. "unerringly targets nerve endings that most readers won't know they have until he zaps them... This novel invites comparison with Vonnegut and even Rushdie." And "Aboriginal Science Fiction" added, "We may be witnessing the birth of a classic, folks. So stick around." We have, and it is.