The lacuna

The Lacuna is the sixth novel by the American writer Barbara Kingsolver, published in 2009. It won the Orange Prize for Fiction in 2010 and the Library of Virginia Literary Award.

Harrison William Shepherd's parents are separated, so his childhood is divided between the United States and Mexico, and the Mexican years give him the life the novel follows. He takes a job mixing plaster for Diego Rivera, becomes a cook for Rivera and Frida Kahlo, and forms a friendship with Kahlo that lasts for the rest of his life. Through that household he is drawn into the politics of the 1930s: he works as a secretary for Leon Trotsky while Trotsky is hiding in Mexico, and is nearby when the exile's life ends violently. Later he travels to the United States, where he sees a veterans' march broken up by troops, and eventually settles in Asheville, North Carolina.

In Asheville he writes novels set in the Mexico he knew and becomes successful, which is when the politics of the period catches up with him: he is investigated by the House Un-American Activities Committee, treated as a threat by the press, and leaves for Mexico again.