Fruit of the Dead

An electric contemporary reimagining of the myth of Persephone and Demeter set over the course of one summer on a lush private island, exploring who holds the power in a modern underworld. Camp counsellor Cory Ansel, eighteen and aimless, afraid to face her high-strung single mother in New York, is no longer sure where home is when the father of one of her campers offers an alternative.  The CEO of a Fortune 500 pharmaceutical company, Rolo Picazo is middle-aged, divorced, magnetic. He is also intoxicated by Cory. When Rolo proffers a childcare job (and an NDA), Cory quiets an internal warning and allows herself to be ferried to his private island off the coast of Maine. Plied with luxury and opiates manufactured by his company, she continues to tell herself she’s in charge. Her mother, Emer, head of a teetering agricultural NGO, senses otherwise. When her daughter seemingly disappears, Emer crosses land and sea to heed a cry for help she alone is convinced she hears. Alternating between the two women’s perspectives, Fruit of the Dead incorporates its mythic inspiration with a light touch and devastating precision. The result is a lush and haunting story that explores love, attraction, control, obliteration and America’s own late capitalist mythos. Advance praise for Fruit of the Dead ‘Irresistible and devastating. Lyon has spun an utterly absorbing, lush and terror-laced retelling of an ancient, archetypal tale – a young woman tempted and taken, a mother’s feral grief – that is both timeless and crisply contemporary’ ― Melissa Febos ‘Opulent and unsettling, Fruit of the Dead explores the island where ancient myth meets the contemporary body’ ― Julia Phillips

'A mesmerising contemporary reimagining of the Persephone myth, exploring power, desire and responsibility. A dizzying take on an age-old tale of temptation, seduction and enchantment.', 'Lyon’s skillful and luscious prose encourages empathy... an affecting novel with touches of the fantastical, weaving explorations of power, youth, wealth, and familial love.', 'Mesmerised and profoundly alarmed, I read this in one go; I’ve been haunted by it ever since. I’ve passionately loved Lyon’s writing for years, and Fruit of the Dead further confirms what I’ve long suspected: I want to lunge to read anything she writes.'

Rachel Lyon’s debut novel Self-Portrait with Boy was a finalist for the Center for Fiction's First Novel Prize. An editor emerita for Epiphany, she has taught creative writing at the Sackett Street Writers Workshop, Catapult, Bennington College, and other institutions. She has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize, and her work has appeared in McSweeney's, Joyland, Bustle, The Toast, The Iowa Review, and elsewhere. A native of Brooklyn, NY, Rachel lives in Western Massachusetts with her husband and two young children.