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"There's only one solution for a nasty case of writer's block--and that's murder. Specifically, that of one Mercy McCabe, a cunning SoHo art dealer who was once our Latina narrator's rival for the scrumptious Bebe. When she discovers that McCabe has squandered Bebe's affections after stealing her away, revenge is not enough: she must admit her guilt, sentence herself, and beg for her own execution, Soviet-style. In the all-too-terrifyingly-familiar America of Heartland, the inconceivable has become ordinary"--Amazon.com.
About the author
A New Yorker most of her life, Ana Simo was born and raised in Cuba. Forced to leave the island during the political/homophobic witch-hunts of the late 1960s, she immigrated to France in time to witness the May 1968 revolt, study with Roland Barthes, and participate in early women's and gay and lesbian rights groups. After moving once again, this time to New York, she became an English-language playwright, journalist and lesbian activist, co-founding Medusa's Revenge theatre, the direct-action group the Lesbian Avengers, the national cable program Dyke TV, and the groundbreaking online magazine The Gully, offering queer views on everything. Her New York Times-reviewed plays have been produced in such venues as PS 122, Theatre for the New City, INTAR Hispanic Arts Center, and the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis. How To Kill Her, her short feature film with Ela Troyano, has been widely screened in festivals in the U.S. and abroad. A CD of her play The Opium War with music by Zeena Parkins was released by Roulette. Heartland is her first novel. She recently finished Tannhäuser's Dream, her second novel, and is currently writing a new one, titled Divine Light.
Summary
The uproarious story of a thwarted writer's elaborate revenge on the woman who stole her lover, blending elements of telenovela, pulp noir, and dystopian satire.
Additional text
“This is where America seems to be heading even as we speak: corruption and greed at the top leads to mass starvation at the bottom; refugees fill camps across the country until they rise up and attack the cities; and new enemies abroad are rising up with America in their sights. Against this dramatic background we have the story of a writer whose solution to writer’s block is to commit murder. Only it’s not as simple as that: for the writer the plan would only be a success if the chosen victim admitted her guilt and begged for execution. But the victim is wilier than the writer supposes.”
—Paul Kincaid, BestScienceFictionBooks.com
