Barbara Kingsolver, an internationally acclaimed American writer, poet, essayist and political activist, was born on 8 April 1955 in Annapolis, Maryland. She grew up in Eastern Kentucky. Her father was a doctor who did his practice in the rural area. She did her graduation in Biology from DePauw University, Greencastle, Indiana and the University of Arizona. She worked as a freelancer before writing her novels. Later she devoted herself for creative writing. Her published fictions are The Bean Trees (1988), Homeland and Other Stories (1989), Animal Dreams (1990), Pigs in Heaven (1993), The Poison wood Bible (1998), Prodigal Summer (2000), The Lacuna (2009), Flight Behavior (2012), Unsheltered (2018) and Demon Copperhead (2022). The Lacuna was published in 2009 and it is the sixth novel by her. It narrates the journey of Harrison William Shepherd from Mexico City, Frida Kahlo, Diego Rivera to America, the Cold War, and the Red Scare. The novel is a narrative of a man Harrison who is caught between two worlds. His identity crisis and struggle of life remain the main emphasis of this novel. He becomes a plaster mixer, a cook and secretary. His struggle during the Second World War becomes more difficult because the Red Scare was attacking the artists and was incriminating them for their work.

Barbara Kingsolver, The Lacuna, World War II, Harrison William Shepherd, Turmoil, Artists, Extra-Marital Relationships, Identity, Self-Obsession.