The Lacuna

From Strand Bookstore

Born in the United States, reared in a series of provisional households in Mexico - from a coastal island jungle to 1930s Mexico City - Harrison Shepherd finds precarious shelter but no sense of home on his thrilling odyssey. Life is whatever he learns from housekeepers who put him to work in the kitchen, errands he runs in the streets, and one fateful day, by mixing plaster for famed Mexican muralist Diego Rivera. He discovers a passion for Aztec history and meets the exotic, imperious artist Frida Kahlo, who will become his lifelong friend. When he goes to work for Lev Trotsky, an exiled political leader fighting for his life, Shepherd inadvertently casts his lot with art & revolution - and more.

From the Publisher

Harrison William Shepherd, a highly observant writer, is caught between two worlds--in Mexico, working for communists Diego Rivera, Frida Kahlo and Leon Trotsky, and later in America, where he his caught up in the patriotism of World War II--in a gripping story about identity and the power of words by the best-selling author of The Poisonwood Bible. 600,000 first printing.

From the Publisher

Harrison William Shepherd, a highly observant writer, is caught between two worlds--in Mexico, working for communists Diego Rivera, Frida Kahlo and Leon Trotsky, and later in America, where he his caught up in the patriotism of World War II--in a gripping story about identity and the power of words by the best-selling author of The Poisonwood Bible. 600,000 first printing.

More about the book

After several works of non-fiction and poetry, Barbara Kingsolver (THE POISONWOOD BIBLE) returns from a nine-year hiatus to the novel form with THE LACUNA, a tale of cultural and political displacement in the first half of the 20th century. Harrison Shepherd is the son of an American father and a Mexican mother, who grows up in Mexico as a housekeeper in the famous artist household of Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo. His exposure to the politics of Leon Trotsky turns him into a committed leftist--views that come back to haunt him when he moves back to the United States in the aftermath of World War II and must face the paranoia and witch-hunting of the McCarthy era. Kingsolver has crafted a rich and layered story, full of powerful political sentiment, that vividly evokes the tension and hopes of the Americas.