Severed Wasp

A retired musician returns to performing in this “soul-satisfying” novel from the award-winning author of A Wrinkle in Time (Norman Lear). Now in her seventies, Katherine Vigneras, née Forrester, has returned to New York City after a successful career touring as a concert pianist in Europe. Much has changed for Katherine: She is widowed and retired, and has lived through the harrowing years of World War II.   But when she encounters an old face from her youth in Greenwich Village, Katherine finds herself agreeing to perform at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, an endeavor that proves to be unexpectedly rewarding—and challenging.   Touching and thought-provoking, A Severed Wasp explores the ebbs and flows in the life of an artist, and continues the story of the singular character who began Madeleine L’Engle’s accomplished career as a writer in her debut novel, The Small Rain.  

“I don’t know another current American writer who could weave the worlds of music and the international concert stage, the claustrophobic life of a great cathedral close, and aspects of the often threatening street life of New York as Miss L’Engle does.” —Edmund Fuller, The Wall Street Journal   “Hours of wonderful, suspenseful, provocative, soul-satisfying entertainment.” —Norman Lear  

Madeleine L’Engle (1918–2007) was an American author of more than sixty books, including novels for children and adults, poetry, and religious meditations. Her best-known work, A Wrinkle in Time, one of the most beloved young adult books of the twentieth century and a Newbery Medal winner, has sold more than fourteen million copies since its publication in 1962. Her other novels include A Wind in the Door, A Swiftly Tilting Planet, and A Ring of Endless Light. Born in New York City, L’Engle graduated from Smith College and worked in theater, where she met her husband, actor Hugh Franklin. L’Engle documented her marriage and family life in the four-book autobiographical series, the Crosswicks Journals. She also served as librarian and writer-in-residence at the Cathedral Church of Saint John the Divine in Manhattan for more than thirty years.