Stigmata

Pulitzer Prize-winning newspaper editor Perry shows impressive talent as a novelist in her haunting debut. Like the stigmata of the saints, Lizzie DuBose's physical manifestations of the wounds of her African American ancestors are inexplicable and harrowing. Born in 1960, Lizzie struggles to understand why she relives her great-great-grandmother Ayo's travails, first on a slave ship, later at the hands of a ruthless slaveowner. Bleeding manacle-scars and flay marks on her back convince Lizzie that she's experiencing something more than psychosomatic pain, sleepwalking injuries or the insanity for which she is hospitalized for 14 years. She knows more about Ayo's life than can be gleaned from the diary that her great-grandmother Joy kept at the turn of the century. She knows, too, what secret torment compelled her grandmother Grace to leave her children in Alabama--and to will Lizzie the trunk that holds the quilt that tells Ayo's story. Ultimately, Lizzie must craft her own quilt of Grace's life to convince her mother than her out-of-body episodes come from true memories of past lives. Only when Lizzie understands the merging of spirits with pain-filled ancestors does she come to peace. Intricate, understated and beautifully controlled, this novel introduces a quietly provocative voice. Editor, Leigh Haber; rights sold in U.K., Germany, Holland; BOMC and QPB selections; finalist for QPB New Voice Award; author tour. (Aug.)