In her solver takes us on an epic journey froo Rivera and Frida Kahlo to the Aar Hoover The Lacuna is a poignant story of a man pulled between two nations as they invent their modern identities Born in the United States, reared in a series of provisional households in Mexico--frole to 1930s Mexico City--Harrison Shepherd finds precarious shelter but no sense of ho odyssey Life is whatever he learns from housekeepers who put him to work in the kitchen, errands he runs in the streets, and one fateful day, by o Rivera He discovers a passion for Aztec history and meets the exotic, i friend When he goes to work for Lev Trotsky, an exiled political leader fighting for his life, Shepherd inadvertently casts his lot with art and revolution, newspaper headlines and howling gossip, and a risk of terrible violence Meanwhile, to the north, the United States will soon be caught up in the internationalist goodwill of World War II There in the land of his birth, Shepherd believes he e and claim a voice of his own He finds support frorapher, Mrs Broill be far h darkening years, political winds continue to toss him between north and south in a plot that turns many times on the unspeakable breach--the lacuna--between truth and public presu characters, a vivid sense of place, and a clear grasp of how history and public opinion can shape a life, Barbara Kingsolver has created an unforgettable portrait of the artist--and of art itself The Lacuna is a rich and daring work of literature, establishing its author as one of the most provocative and important of her time