The Lava in My Bones

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.


Binding Type: Paperback
Publisher: Arsenal Pulp Press
Published: 10/16/2012
ISBN: 9781551524788
Pages: 304
Weight: 1.05lbs
Size: 8.00h x 5.60w x 1.10d
Award: Lambda Literary Awards - Finalist
Award: Triangle Awards - Finalist

Review Citations: Quill & Quire 12/01/2012 pg. 23