Vandal Love

An astonishing novel of epic ambition, Vandal Lovewinner of the prestigious Commonwealth Writers' Prize for best first book in 2007follows generations of a unique French-Canadian family across North America and through the twentieth century.A family cursea genetic trick resulting from centuries of hardshipcauses the Herve children to be born either giants or runts. Book One follows the giants' line, exploring Jude Herve's career as a boxer in Georgia and Louisiana in the 1960s, his escape from that brutal life alone with his baby daughter Isa, and her eventual decision to enter into a strange, chaste marriage with a much older man. Book Two traces a different kind of life entirely, as the runts of the family discover that their power lies in a kind of unifying love. Franois seeks the identity of his missing father for years, while his own son, Harvey, flees from modern society into spiritual quests. But none of the Herves can abandon their longing for a place where they might find others like themselves.In assured and mystically powerful prose, Deni Y. Bechard tells a wide-ranging, spellbinding story of a family trying to create an identity in an unwelcoming landscape. Imbued throughout with a deep sensitivity to the physical world, Vandal Love is a breathtaking literary debut about the power of love to create and destroy in our lives, and in our history.