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Ruth, a brilliant zoologist and geologist, has just retired with her lover, Katia, to her family home in the southern tip of Argentinean Patagonia. Ruth conceives a unique way of dealing with her grief over Katia’s sudden suicide with the creation of an outdoor art garden made of cast-off objects and garbage. Sylvie, a young French artist, is drawn to the art garden and she and Ruth discover that they are kindred spirits. They travel to Spain’s Costa Brava and then on to Barcelona—Ruth filtering the world through her feminist political and zoological/environmental perspective, and Sylvie capturing the world around her with a vivid, penetrating artist eye. Together they discover a new vision of liberated women: sacred beasts.
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Praise
“Pushcart Prize finalist Bev Jafek’s The Sacred Beasts is a fiercely feminist novel that makes space for women’s stories and art in the midst of macho arenas . . . All the characters are forceful presences in this atmospheric novel that is all about valuing women’s ideas, stories, art, and bodies.” — Rebecca Foster, Foreword Reviews
“In the eponymous metaphor of sacred beasts, the novel presents an affirmative vision of the potential of LGBT people that is romantic yet subtle, and on several levels, intellectually provocative. As we learn in the Afterward section, its vision is scientifically-based, drawing on developing research in biology, anthropology, socioeconomics, and psychology. But even more than cultural speculation, the book feels like a lived experience, as it explores–sometimes with visceral eroticism–how egalitarian relationships can lead to greater intimacy and love, and how that can help revive a moribund society. Formally, the novel is adventurous, with a structure that begins at the story’s ending and concludes with its center; yet it is always compelling because of the richness of its fully-human characters. We experience the action and emotion through two complex, mature women, Ruth and Monserrat. Also notable is its strong sense of place, from Patagonian Argentina to Spain, that exist not just as backgrounds but as sensory worlds, visual, auditory, olfactory, and tactile. The story is also empowering, as it builds to a conclusion showing how its memorable protagonists become engaged in revolutionary activity, to change themselves and, by extension, us readers and society.” — Jim Clark, GLBT Literature
“In the eponymous metaphor of sacred beasts, the novel presents an affirmative vision of the potential of LGBT people that is romantic yet subtle, and on several levels, intellectually provocative. As we learn in the Afterward section, its vision is scientifically-based, drawing on developing research in biology, anthropology, socioeconomics, and psychology. But even more than cultural speculation, the book feels like a lived experience, as it explores–sometimes with visceral eroticism–how egalitarian relationships can lead to greater intimacy and love, and how that can help revive a moribund society. Formally, the novel is adventurous, with a structure that begins at the story’s ending and concludes with its center; yet it is always compelling because of the richness of its fully-human characters. We experience the action and emotion through two complex, mature women, Ruth and Monserrat. Also notable is its strong sense of place, from Patagonian Argentina to Spain, that exist not just as backgrounds but as sensory worlds, visual, auditory, olfactory, and tactile. The story is also empowering, as it builds to a conclusion showing how its memorable protagonists become engaged in revolutionary activity, to change themselves and, by extension, us readers and society.” — Jim Clark, GLBT Literature
Other Books by Bev Jafek
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