Read more
From the award-winning writer and director of The Women's Jail Project and author of Dancing the Labyrinth, comes an evocative tale that unashamedly merges renowned historical characters and events into a spellbinding story of destiny.
"I should have assumed with parents known to the world as Mary Magdalene and Jesus Christ, I would be different."
It is not her lineage that makes Sara different. It is her ability to time travel forward into other people's bodies.
When Sara, whose Aramaic name means 'bringer of happiness,' wakes up in Sarah-Marie, a young Cathar from Montségur, she believes it is her destiny to rescue her from the 13th Century siege. By saving Sarah-Marie, Sara hopes to safeguard her mother's gospel. In this odyssey of death, destiny, and soul's purpose, we join Sara as she heeds her call, journeying from Jerusalem to Egypt to Crete until arriving in France.
Narrated by the daughter of Mary Magdalene, the Bringer of Happiness delves into ideologies and heresies, culminating in the 13th Century massacre of the Cathars at Montségur. As our histories become unstuck, the patterns of power through religion are shifting, making way for new narratives. This book is part of this process.
The Bringer of Happiness is a compelling (almost) true tale comprised of history, myth, and imagination.
About the author
Karen Martin is a fiction writer, collage artist and professional editor. In 2010, she published her first stories in Itch, a South African-based multimedia online journal. In 2011, she was awarded a fellowship to Syracuse University's three-year creative writing MFA program. In 2012, she was artist-in-residence at the Norman Mailer Writers Colony and the Woodstock Byrdcliffe Guild. In 2013, she was awarded the Allen and Nirelle Galson Prize for Fiction by Stone Canoe, a journal that showcases artists and writers with ties to Upstate New York. Karen has initiated and developed several projects for gala, including Balancing Act, a book and exhibition of South African lgbti youth life stories, and Till the Time of Trial, a booklet featuring the prison letters of lgbti and hiv/aids activist Simon Nkoli. She is the co-editor of Sex and Politics, a collection of essays, memoirs and archival documents about the South African lgbti rights movement and the anti-apartheid struggle. She is a member of the gala board of trustees.
