The Lacuna [Paperback]

"Barbara Kingsolver is one of my favourite writers. The Lacuna is a fascinating, compelling book" --Kate Atkinson

'Even more engrossing [than The Poisonwood Bible].' --Daily Mail

'Every few years, you read a book that makes everything else in life seem unimportant ... Tender, tragic, always compelling.' --Independent on Sunday

'Kingsolver keenly explores the links between big historical events and individual lives.' --Financial Times

'Kingsolver stands up for the enduring and redemptive power of a good story.' --The Times

'An epic tale ... This remarkable novel is a finely crafted story of identity and loyalty.'
--Daily Express

'Breathtaking ... dazzling ... Kingsolver gives voice to truths whose teller could express them only in silence.' --New York Times Book Review

'Kingsolver hasn't lost her touch ... A rich, sprawling saga ... teems with dark beauty.' --People Magazine

'A refresher course in the richly drawn characters and tangled cultural crossings of Kingsolver's fiction.' --O, The Oprah Magazine

'Her most ambitious, timely, and powerful novel yet. Well worth the wait.' --Library Journal

'Kingsolver masterfully resurrects a dark period in American history with the assured hand of a true literary artist.' --Publishers Weekly

'Stupendously good.' --Marie Claire

'I was both smiling and crying when I reached The Lacuna's conclusion ... A novel worth waiting a decade for.' --Literary Review --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

"[Kingsolver] hasn't lost her touch...she delivers her signature blend of exotic locale, political backdrop and immediately engaging story line...teems with dark beauty."--People --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

The Orange Prize-winning novel from the bestselling author of The Poisonwood Bible.

The Lacuna is the heartbreaking story of a man's search for safety of a man torn beween the warm heart of Mexico and the cold embrace of 1950s McCarthyite America.

Born in the U.S. and reared in Mexico, Harrison Shepherd is a liability to his social-climbing flapper mother, Salomé. Making himself useful in the household of the famed Mexican artists Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo, and exiled Bolshevik leader Lev Trotsky, young Shepherd inadvertently casts his lot with art and revolution. A violent upheaval sends him north to a nation newly caught up in World War II. In the mountain city of Asheville, North Carolina he remakes himself in America's hopeful image. 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.

A gripping story of identity, loyalty and the devastating power of accusations to destroy innocent people. The Lacuna is as deep and rich as the New World.

Barbara Kingsolver was born in 1955 and grew up in eastern Kentucky. Her books include poetry, non-fiction and award-winning fiction, and in 1999 she was shortlisted for the Orange Prize for The Poisonwood Bible. She lives with her husband and daughter in southern Arizona and in the mountains of southern Appalachia.