Lazarus Rising
A Novel
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- 12,99 €
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- 12,99 €
Publisher Description
The Rome Prize–winning author of In the Shadow of the Bridge“evokes a bygone era and an earlier pandemic. . . . An affecting turn in [his] long career” (Publishers Weekly).
This dark, propulsive novel, the crowning masterwork by ninety-two-year-old Joseph Caldwell, takes place during 1992, when AIDS was still an incurable scourge and death casualties were everyday events.
One cold winter night, when the artist Dempsey Coates is on her way home to her loft, she encounters a blaze, several alarms ringing and water jetting every which way from fire hydrants. She ends up offering several firemen a place to get warm. One of them is Johnny Donegan, a passionate lad who falls madly in love with her and is determined, through prayer and sheer perseverance, to make a life with Dempsey unimpeded by the specter of her illness.
But when the couple is finally blessed with an unexpected stroke of good luck, this one twist of fate that promises an enduring future will end up coming between them in a very tragic and unforeseen way.
Praise for In the Shadow of the Bridge
“A moving memoir and a look at gay and artistic life in New York City from the 1950s on, through the AIDS epidemic.” —New York Post
“In telling the story of coming to NYC as a young man, grappling with his desire to be an artist, to be a man of faith, and his desire for the love of another man, Joseph Caldwell tells the story of a time and place—the story of a generation.” —A. M. Homes, Orange Prize–winning author of May We Be Forgiven
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Caldwell (In the Shadow of the Bridge) concocts a parable of commitment and faith, complete with a divine miracle in his evocative and earnest latest. In late 1980s New York City, artist Dempsey Coates meets Staten Island firefighter Johnny Donegan while he's on a call in Dempsey's neighborhood. They date for a few months, but drift apart. When they are reunited in 1992, Dempsey has been through a period of drug addiction and has contracted AIDS. She has also benefited from a minor miracle in the form of a large inheritance that allows her to devote herself full-time to her current project, a painting of Lazarus. She eventually asks Johnny to pose for her, and they get engaged. Johnny's inner turmoil about his Catholicism the church can't sanction the couple's planned marriage because they practice safe sex leads to a friendship with the empathetic priest, Father Dunphy. Johnny's prayers for Dempsey to be cured lead to events neither Dunphy nor Dempsey's doctor can explain. Caldwell vividly evokes a bygone era and an earlier pandemic, while consistently finding complexity and meaning in the characters' everyday routines. This thoughtful outing marks an affecting turn in Caldwell's long career.
