Books by Brights
The Fiery Alphabet
Author: Diane Lefer
ISBNs:
[Softcover] 978-1-6243-2004-0 Price: $18.99 (list)
[ebook] 978-1-6243-2005-7 Price: $3.99
To Purchase: Amazon USA
Description
The Fiery Alphabet plays out a woman’s life-story against the conflict between 18th-century Enlightenment thought and the mystical traditions of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. In the novel, Daniela Messo, a young mathematical prodigy, lives in seclusion with her father until Giuseppe Balsamo (better known to history as the occultist Cagliostro) finds them, convinced that Daniela has inherited the secrets of a long-dead Jewish mystic. A freethinker with little patience for religion or the supernatural, Daniela nonetheless falls for Balsamo. Before long, they are crossing Europe en route to the Ottoman Empire, financing their way through spiritual con games. God doesn't exist, but religion does and Daniela must cope with it, confront it, hide from it, or subvert it as she seeks a place for herself in a hostile world.
ForeWord Reviews concluded: Lefer has written a complex and thoroughly satisfying book, a work that, above all, is about the power of words to bring life or death, to create walls that imprison body and mind, or to break those walls down and open the gates to freedom.
About the Author:
Diane Lefer is an author, playwright, and activist whose books include California Transit, the short story collection awarded the Mary McCarthy Prize. Her advocacy journalism has appeared in CounterPunch, LA Progressive, New Clear Vision, Truthout, and other e-zines. "Nightwind," her theatrical collaboration with Colombian exile Hector Aristizбbal, has toured the US and the world as part of the global movement to end the practice of torture.
Find her at www.dianelefer.weebly.com.
For a recent interview, please click here.
