Moses Unchained - (The Sue William Silverman Prize for Creative Nonfiction) by Marilyn F Moriarty (Paperback)

About the Book

Set in the Blue Ridge Mountains, this powerful, challenging, and unforgettable book tells the true story of a modern outlaw's struggle with faith, betrayal, and the accidental nature of life when he contracts AIDS.

Book Synopsis

Moses Unchained is the moving true story of a modern outlaw's struggle with faith, betrayal, and the accidental nature of life. Zack Rosen was a simple man, but one with many contrasts. An urban Jew from New Jersey who moved south and converted to fundamentalist Christianity, he was not a philosopher or theologian but a man's man, a tattooed truck driver who built a classic Harley-Davidson from spare parts. Zack met and married Shelley, another converted Jew, but their happiness was brief. Secrets from Shelley's past came back to haunt them, and her sudden death from pneumon/ia revealed that she had AIDS and she had given the virus to Zack.

Suddenly faced with the loss of his family, his job, his income, and eventually, his own life, Zack became an itinerant evangelist. He introduced himself to author Marilyn F. Moriarty in 1993 with the words, "I got an honorable testimony." She listened to this story and became his friend and caregiver. At his request, she has told his story here.

From the Back Cover

Zack Rosen was a simple man, but one of many contrasts. An urban Jew from New Jersey who moved south and converted to fundamentalist Christianity, he was not a philosopher or theologian but a man's man, a tattooed truck driver who built a classic Harley-Davidson from spare parts. In Florida he met and married Shelley, another converted Jew, but their happiness was brief. After they moved to Virginia, secrets from Shelley's past came back to haunt them, and her sudden death from pneumonia revealed a shocking fact: She had AIDS, and she had given the virus to Zack. Suddenly faced with the loss of his family, his job, his income, and eventually, his own life, Zack became an itinerant evangelist. He introduced himself to author Marilyn F. Moriarty in 1993 with the words, "I got an honorable testimony". She listened to his story and became his friend and caregiver. At his request, she has told his story here.

About the Author

MARILYN F. MORIARITY is a professor of English at Hollins University. She is coeditor of Critical Architecture and Contemporary Culture and author of Writing Science through Critical Thinking. Her fiction and creative nonfiction has been published in Faultline, Mondo Greco, Nimrod, Peregrine, Phoebe, Quarterly West, Thema, and the Kenyon Review.