The Lacuna
Author of Demon Copperhead, Winner of the Women's Prize for Fiction
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5.0 • 2 Ratings
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- $14.99
Publisher Description
PARTITA - THE HEARTRENDING NEW NOVEL FROM BARBARA KINGSOLVER - COMING OCTOBER 2026
FROM THE WINNER OF THE PULITZER PRIZE FOR FICTION
TWICE WINNER OF THE WOMEN'S PRIZE FOR FICTION
THE MULTI-MILLION COPY BESTSELLING AUTHOR
'Lush.' SUNDAY TIMES
'Superb.' DAILY MAIL
'Elegantly written.' SUNDAY TELEGRAPH
Born in America and raised in Mexico, Harrison Shepherd starts work in the household of Mexican artists Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo. A compulsive diarist, he records and relates his colourful experiences of life in the midst of the Mexican revolution, but political winds toss him between north and south.
The Lacuna is the heartbreaking story of a man torn between the warm heart of Mexico and the cold embrace of 1950s America in the shadow of Senator McCarthy. It is both a portrait of the artist-and of art itself.
Readers loved The Lacuna:
'My new favourite book . . . it gets under your skin.' ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
'An amazing tale. You must read it!' ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
'One of those books that you don't want to end and which stays with you.' ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
'Brilliant. You will never forget this book.' ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Kingsolver's ambitious new novel, her first in nine years (after the The Poisonwood Bible), focuses on Harrison William Shepherd, the product of a divorced American father and a Mexican mother. After getting kicked out of his American military academy, Harrison spends his formative years in Mexico in the 1930s in the household of Diego Rivera; his wife, Frida Kahlo; and their houseguest, Leon Trotsky, who is hiding from Soviet assassins. After Trotsky is assassinated, Harrison returns to the U.S., settling down in Asheville, N.C., where he becomes an author of historical potboilers (e.g., Vassals of Majesty) and is later investigated as a possible subversive. Narrated in the form of letters, diary entries and newspaper clippings, the novel takes a while to get going, but once it does, it achieves a rare dramatic power that reaches its emotional peak when Harrison wittily and eloquently defends himself before the House Un-American Activities Committee (on the panel is a young Dick Nixon). "Employed by the American imagination," is how one character describes Harrison, a term that could apply equally to Kingsolver as she masterfully resurrects a dark period in American history with the assured hand of a true literary artist.
