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WOMAN ON THE CROSS

WOMAN ON THE CROSS

$15.95Price

ISBN: 978-0-9668612-5-9

Pub Date: Spring 2000

Pages: 192


By Pierre Delattre


WINNER OF FOREWARD MAGAZINE's 2001 BOOK OF THE YEAR FOR LITERARY FICTION


Woman on the Cross is a novel that takes place near the end of the 18th century in a deforested Latin American country where the pre-Christian nature religion has been suppressed. The story tells of Sebastian Cristo Rey, the last actor in a family line of professional Christs who have made their living being crucified on Good Fridays, and what happens when Sidelle, daughter of the priestess who maintains the pre-Christian tradition of tree worship, is nailed to Sebastian's cross. The theme echoes the way that the rape of nature and the rape of women were simultaneously justified in many pseudo-Christian cultures under the traditional droit du seigneur, the right of the bleeder—the "señor," "sir" or "sire"—to claim whatever is virginal for his own profit and pleasure.


    Pierre Delattre is a writer and painter living in the foothills of the Sangre de Cristo mountains in northern New Mexico between Santa Fe and Taos. Tales of a Dalai Lama was his first book of fiction, followed by Walking On Air, and Episodes, a memoir. He has published stories, poems and essays in many magazines, and has just completed a book of essays entitled The Art of Beauty.


    Pierre Delattre’s paintings have been on exhibit in several galleries in and around Santa Fe, and at his home studio in Penasco, where he lives with his wife, the painter Nancy Ortenstone.


    Mr. Delattre took his graduate degree in Religion and the Arts from the University of Chicago Divinity School, and has been involved in the relationship between art and spirituality ever since, including work in theatre, music, television and film, with emphasis on spiritual humor.

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