The Lacuna

Kingsolver, Barbara

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0571252664 ISBN 13: 9780571252664

Publisher: Faber and Faber, 2010

The Lacuna is the heartbreaking story of a man’s search for safety of a man torn beween the warm heart of Mexico and the cold embrace of 1950s McCarthyite America. Born in the U.S. and reared in Mexico, Harrison Shepherd is a liability to his social-climbing flapper mother, Salomé. Making himself useful in the household of the famed Mexican artists Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo, and exiled Bolshevik leader Lev Trotsky, young Shepherd inadvertently casts his lot with art and revolution. A violent upheaval sends him north to a nation newly caught up in World War II. In the mountain city of Asheville, North Carolina he remakes himself in America’s hopeful image. But political winds continue to throw him between north and south, in a plot that turns many times on the unspeakable breach – the lacuna – between truth and public presumption. A gripping story of identity, loyalty and the devastating power of accusations to destroy innocent people. The Lacuna is as deep and rich as the New World.

Review:

This remarkable novel is a finely crafted story of identity and loyalty. --The Daily Express

Tender, tragic, always compelling. --The Independent on Sunday

Kingsolver stands up for the enduring and redemptive power of a good story. --The Times

Book Description:

The Orange Prize-winning novel from the bestselling author of The Poisonwood Bible.