The Lacuna is a novel by Barbara Kingsolver that follows Harrison Shepherd, a man caught between the vibrant culture of Mexico and the oppressive atmosphere of 1950s America, as he navigates political turmoil, art, and revolution.
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Book Blurb
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.
Born in America and raised in Mexico, Harrison Shepherd is a liability to his social-climbing flapper mother, Salome. When he starts work in the household of Mexican artists Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo – where the Bolshevik leader, Lev Trotsky, is also being harboured as a political exile – he inadvertently casts his lot with art, communism and revolution.
A compulsive diarist, he records and relates his colourful experiences of life with Diego Rivera, Frida Kahlo and Trotsky in the midst of the Mexican revolution. A violent upheaval sends him back to America; 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.
Awards/Accolades
The Lacuna won the prestigious Orange Prize for Fiction in 2010. Additionally, The Lacuna earned the James Tait Black Memorial Prize for Fiction, further cementing Kingsolver’s reputation as a master storyteller.
The novel was also a finalist for the PEN/Faulkner Award and was selected for several notable book lists, highlighting its critical and commercial success.
About the Author
Barbara Kingsolver is an American author, poet and essayist whose works explore social justice and political issues. She earned degrees in biology, ecology, and evolutionary biology at DePauw University and the University of Arizona. This explains why her novels so often have an environmental focus.
Barbara Kingsolver’s literary fiction is known for its richly drawn characters and compelling themes, which have earned her numerous awards and accolades throughout her career.
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