The Healing by Gayl Jones. Boston. 1998. Beacon Press. 285 pages. Jacket illustration by Leigh Wells. 0807063142. hardcover.

DESCRIPTION - Two decades after the publication of her last novel, EVA'S MAN, Gayl Jones returns with a new novel heralded by Newsweek as 'a major literary event. ' Nominated for the National Book Award, THE HEALING is the story of Harlan Jane Eagleton, a faith healer from Louisville, Kentucky, who travels from town to town restoring minds and bodies. Beginning in the present and working backward in time to the central mystery of the novel -- the story of her first healing -- Harlan revisits her various previous incarnations as the manager of a rising rock singer, the lover of an Afro-German horse dealer, a race-track gambler, and a small-town beautician. Lyrical and at times humorous, THE HEALING is a dramatic exploration of the struggle to let go of pain, anger, and even love.

Gayl Jones was born in Kentucky in 1949. She attended Connecticut College and Brown University, and has taught a Wellesley College and the University of Michigan. Her other books include THE HEALING (1998 National Book Award Finalist and New York Times Notable Book of the Year) and many others.

See if zenosbooks.com has any books for sale by this author