arteles_catalogue_2014

CHAPTER 1 - KATHMANDU - REVELATION AND DISASTER
“Once I set my heart on a thing, I bite down, and the world narrows
to that bright point. The dying animal pounds and thrashes and
moans as life and death mingle in the body. This mingling is visible
and insubstantial as a rainbow, as smoke. The animal collapses,
shivers and stills. Live flesh, responsive, intelligent flesh has
become dead meat. Inert matter. Watching this is being ripped
apart and put back together. I wipe my face and look at my stained
hands. He’s dressed me in blood.”
Cecilia is the enigmatic and provocative protagonist who chases
down blood sacrifice ceremonies around the globe. In this vivid and
visceral novel, we move through rich and ominous psychological
territory as Cecilia seeks redemption through sacrifice in the
politically volatile countries of Nepal, Indonesia, and Mongolia. Her
obsession with bridging the gap between life and death, the foreign
and the familiar, leads to a catastrophic climax.
This dreamlike novel explores themes of death, fear, religion, god,
salvation, filling up, emptying out, foreignism, and the endless
search.