Synopses & Reviews
A frustrated geologist studying global warming becomes obsessed with eating rocks after embarking on his first same-sex relationship in Europe. Back home, his young sister is a high-school girl who suddenly starts to ooze honey through her pores, an affliction that attracts hordes of bees as well as her male classmates but ultimately turns her into a social pariah. Meanwhile, their obsessive Pentecostal mother repeatedly calls on the Holy Spirit to rid her family of demons. The siblings are reunited on a ship bound for Europe where they hope to start a new life, but are unaware that their disguised mother is also on board and plotting to win back their souls, with the help of the Virgin Mary.
Told in a lush baroque prose, this intense, extravagant magic-realist novel combines elements of fairy tales, horror movies, and romances to create a comic, hallucinatory celebration of excess and sensuality.
Barry Webster's first book, The Sound of All Flesh, won the ReLit Award for story collections.
Review
"Webster has written a vast, exuberant and optimistic epic about the ebbs and flows of the lava-like oils that lubricate the worlds engine, emphasizing the transformative power of love." —National Post
Synopsis
An extravagant phantasia about a geologist who eats rocks and his sister who oozes honey and has sex with bees.
About the Author
Barry Webster: Barry Websters first book,
The Sound of All Flesh, won the ReLit Award for best short-story collection in 2005. He has been a finalist for the National Magazine Award, the CBC-Quebec Prize, and the Hugh MacLennan Award. Originally from Toronto, he currently lives in East Montreal.