by Gret Heffernan (author)
Robert Littleford (illustrator)
Jacques Beaumont is a French Haitian artist of Voodoo ancestry with the ability to resurrect the dead through his sculptures.
The tragic death of his parents takes him to Callisto, a rural town in Illinois, where he falls in love with Elora Winter, a singer and abused wife of Arlo Donnelley, the town’s sheriff and ring leader of the area’s white supremacy group. Elora becomes pregnant with Jacques child and her murdered body is found in the river.
Jacques resurrects Elora into a woman free of Arlo’s oppression, but the murder precipitates a series of events that force Jacques into exile, where he is presumed dead.
Elora arises with an uncanny ability of her own. A power she develops through her own artwork and Birdie’s guidance into a focus for revenge and a new way of living.
When she finds Jacques, will she love him or hate him for what he’s done to her? And, can she remedy the woman she’s become or the child she’s lost?
The Sculptor is a noir romance about reawakening the truths we inhabit inside our bodies, our artwork, our communities, and our minds.
Available from Waterstones and Amazon and wholesale from Gardners UK. Able to stock for consignment in the UK.
Publisher: Backlash Press
Language: English
Print length: 298 pages
ISBN-10: 1916266622, Fiction, Illustration
ISBN-13: 978-1916266629
Item weight: 513 g
Dimensions: 13.97 x 2.06 x 21.59 cm
Review
“Like Zora Neale Hurston’s ‘Their Eyes Were Watching God’ or Toni Morrison’s ‘Beloved’ (two novels of which I was immediately reminded when I began ‘The Sculptor’), Heffernan has a gorgeous way with words.
Similes, metaphors, personifications, and other memorable and at times wonderfully jarring imagery fill every page of the work. Heffernan’s style works effectively as she spins an original story of voodoo, mysticism, and real-world racial bigotry and hatred. The book is a satisfying and challenging read, a moody and somber novel-length poem about love, loss, abuse, and a belief in something far beyond what the human world can offer.”
– Josh Hancock, indie blogger and author of ‘The Girls of October’
About the Author
Gret Heffernan is a writer who records and publishes text as an art practice. She writes poetry, fiction, essay, and screenplays. She’s the founder of Backlash Press and member of Edgeland Modern. She’s the author of multiple books and zines.
Her work has been featured in AGNI, Brittle Star, and A Rabbit’s Foot and longlisted by the BBC.
She studied poetry at the University of Iowa Writers Workshop, Creative Writing and English Literature at Vermont College, Faber and Faber Academy, and Curtis Brown Creative. She is currently working towards her PhD at King’s College London.