The release date for the English version of 'The Lacuna' by
Barbara Kingsolver is Nov 2009. If you enjoy this novel, it is available for buy as a paperback from Barnes & Noble or Indigo, as an ebook on the Amazon Kindle store, or as an audiobook on Audible.
Barbara Kingsolver takes us on an epic trip in her most successful book, taking us from the Mexico City of Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo to the America of Pearl Harbor, FDR, and J. Edgar Hoover. A man torn between two countries as they create their contemporary identities is the subject of the moving tale The Lacuna.
Harrison Shepherd was born in the United States and raised in a succession of temporary homes around Mexico, from a coastal island jungle to Mexico City in the 1930s. around his exciting journey, he finds unstable shelter but no feeling of home. He learns about life from housekeepers who make him labor in the kitchen, from running errands in the streets, and from preparing plaster for renowned Mexican muralist Diego Rivera one tragic day. He meets the exotic, imposing artist Frida Kahlo, who would become a lifetime companion, and develops a fascination for Aztec history. Working for the political leader in exile, Lev Trotsky, who is battling for his life, Shepherd unintentionally throws himself into the mix of art and revolution, tabloid headlines and raucous rumors, and the possibility of horrific bloodshed.
Meanwhile, the internationalist benevolence of World War II is quickly going to engulf the United States to the north. Shepherd thinks he can reinvent himself in the idealized picture of America there and establish his own voice. His stenographer, Mrs. Brown, who will be considerably more essential to her company than he could ever realize, offers him encouragement in an odd way. As the years go by, he finds himself tossed back and forth between the north and the south by political winds; the story again revolves around the gap, or lacuna, that exists between the public's perception and the reality.
Barbara Kingsolver has painted an enduring image of the artist—and of art itself—with very engaging characters, a vivid sense of location, and a keen understanding of how history and popular opinion can influence a life. Rich and audacious in its literary style, The Lacuna makes its creator one of the most significant and thought-provoking writers of her day.